J
I did check, hooked up the volt meter while key was off and the needle didn't move till I turned key to start position.I'm glad you found the problem, and to be honest, I haven't seen many starter problems over the years. So, I'm curious have you checked to see if power is/was going to the starter while off? Reason for asking, I would check the machine over carefully to ensure you do not have some sort of electrical issue going on and end up burning up a new one...