John Deere 111 won't start?

Bought an old John deere 111 off of a guy who tried to rig up an ignition instead of buying the right one (five dollars more). He told me he tried to start it and it started up and an for a few and died. The ignition he used was missing one of the prongs (i think maybe the ground). I replaced the ignition with the factory one, but the battery doesn't seem to charge (its only been an hour or so). Could this have fried the battery or solenoid?