My PC50 turns over very sluggishly the first couple of turns on cold starts. The battery is new. There is a noticeable difference in cranking speed when the machine is warm. It seems like the engine is under load those first couple of turns. I couldn't find anything in the troubleshooting section of the shop manual for this. Any suggestions as to how the engine could be under load? The safety lever must be up in order to crank and aside from this issue, the motor runs fine.
Put a clamp-on amp meter on battery cable to starter just to see if you have much higher amp draw when cold.get reading warm & cold might be a two person operation if it like my clamp on meter. Your problem sounds electrical starter, relay, battery cable & connections.
Thanks for the input, Jack. I don't have a clamp on amp meter. I'll clean the connections and see where that gets me. It's not that big of a deal, the machine starts up every time.