You get a 12volt test light and put the clamp end on the frame where there is no paint Then you put the needle end on the bigger bolt .With the key turned on one side of the solenoid should have power. Then put the tester on the other side and push button to engage the starter it should light the tester lite if it does not lite up then your solenoid is probably bad.
Either the battery cables are dirty, battery is not fully charged, or the solenoid is stuck.
there is either a bad connection to the solenoid or the solenoid itself is bad
At the front of the injector body,with a black twin lead coming out of the top. The solenoid is approx 25mm around and is screwed in.
Make sure your battery is charged. Check the solenoid with a screw driver. If it doesn't spark and try to turn over it it's the solenoid. Other than that you have bad wiring some where.
Starter solenoid? Battery not fully charged?
Most likely the starter solenoid needs replacement
Assuming it is equipped with a Briggs & Stratton: Fuel solenoid test: Unclip wiring harness and remove solenoid from carburetor float bowl. Take a charged 9 volt battery, and touch two leads from the battery terminal to the solenoid terminals (polarity doesn't matter). You should hear an audible click as it engages, on some models you can actually see the solenoid plunger retract under power. If nothing happens, replace solenoid.
Then your battery is still not charged. The clicking sound is the solenoid that has a little gear on it that engages with the ring gear of the engine to spin it. There is a certain amount of voltage needed to push that solenoid into the ring gear and your battery isn't putting out enough. You'll need a jump to get started and then need to consider the battery.
Connected to the solenoid. It is the single chord connected to the bottom terminal of the solenoid and is connected to the chord coming from the alternator. A blown fusible link will cause typical bad alternator symptoms and not allow the battery to be charged by the alternator.
bad solenoid...will usually click up a storm when you turn on the ignition.
because its gone bad the starter solenoid is engaging the gears, yet the motor fails to spin
If the click is coming from the starter solenoid then you will probably have to replace it. If the click is coming from the fuel solenoid on the bottom of the starter then you may have a safety switch problem somewhere. Determine where the click is coming from and we can go from there. First make sure that your battery is good and fully charged. By passing the solenoid will make it work with either symptom. So that won't help diagnose it.