Cub Cadez Z Force Starting Issue Help

Have a 2005 Cub Cadet Z Force with 44" deck. Was thinking starter is getting week. Go to start it and you can hear it try to engage. After doing this a few times, it will finally kick in and spin the engine. If I put the charger on, it will start easier.
Bough an after market starter of flea bay that is supposed to be a replacement as OEM is no longer available.

Finally decided to replace starter the other evening. Get old one out and new one in. Everything put back on and in place. Hope on and nothing. Not even a click. Put charger on battery and tinker around checking wires and fuses. Few minutes later and spins like dickens and fires right up. Leave charger on for a good full charge. Next day (with no charger on) have nothing. Put charger on and 1 minute later fires right up.

Had wife mowing lawn. She gets done and puts mower in shed. I go out to clean deck and mower, and nothing from starter. Put charger on and 1 minute later fires right up.

What should I be looking for. Larger CCA battery? I think I have that in there now.

Thanks

My first thought would be a bad battery, second if battery checks good, make sure all your cable ends are clean and tight. If all this checks out, you have a bad short some where draining your battery.

Have you done any testing on the battery or mower? You do need proably at lest a 300 cranking amp battery for most mowers over 20 hp. I would load test the battery. I would check to see if you are getting power to the start terminal on the starter solenoid when you turn the key. If power is at the start terminal, then its the solenoid. (And you probably have a Kawasaki engine on your mower. They seem to have mower solenoid problems than anyone else.)

If your battery is good and for being good I mean it carries a current load without falling on its face, not just puts out 12 volts on your volt meter. And you are not getting power to the start post on the solenoid, you either have a bad ignition switch, a bad relay, a bad safety switch, or something is failing to transmit current to the solenoid at certain times.

It could also be as the other post said, corroded battery termials, battery cable ends, both ends: bad ground or bad connection at starter. Bad ground on the cheaper Cub Cadets is very common, where the ground cable goes to the frame rather than to the engine. (The fix is another ground cable from the negative battery post to the engine itself.)

There are also probably some other possibilities, but these are the first ones I would check.