How to Test Charging System Stator Voltage Regulator any Small Engine (Comprehensive Testing)

hey guys welcome to certain small engine garage today we're gonna be doing a video on charging systems on riders and 0 turns by the time we get done with this video you should be able to check and diagnose what's wrong why your battery is not charging so let's get started okay guys the first thing I want to say is if your battery is dead don't boost it off and use the mower to charge the battery especially on ones that have a voltage regulator that's one way you can tell if it's got electric PTO blades the charging systems on these things are strong you don't want to charge your battery with it I will do a video on that and show you guys why but trust me don't use your mower to charge the battery take the battery out charge the battery and then put it back in with the charging with the battery charger but for today for this video we're going to concentrate on the charging system on this mower all of them is pretty much the same setup work the same exact way it's going to have two wires coming from the stator under the flywheel one wire going to the battery okay so the first thing you want to do if you're charging systems not working probably what's gonna happen is you're gonna be mowing and then your your blades are either gonna stop turning you're not going to know why or the mowers just gonna die usually the blades will stop turning and it's because your alternator is not charging it could have a bad battery you know it's charging but the battery's not taking the charge but if that's the case you had to boost it off and that's what you do not want to do so let's get started on this checking this charging system first all I want to say there's nothing wrong with the charging system on this mower but I can show you how to check for it anyways first thing you're going to want to do is locate the voltage regulator on this engine it just happens to be right here on the left side of the engine below the fuel pump right here that's your voltage regulator some of them it's mounted to the shroud some of them it's mounted on the other side of the motor it just depends on where they want to put it first thing you want to do is disconnect these wires that goes to this voltage regulator make sure the keys off there will be power on this one wire right here so if keys on there will be power here you don't want that you're gonna make sparks just kind of tap that off these things have never been also if they're they're on there pretty good alright once you get that loose go ahead and take them the rest of the way off now you want to find the two wires that go up under the shroud and top of shroud that will be the two wires that go to your stator that is these two wires right here your stator produces AC current that's alternating current and then your voltage regulator converts that with four diodes to direct current out this other post which is what your battery is in your mower is direct current so the first thing you want to do is check the AC current to these two wires okay and the safest way to do that is to go ahead and get your meter alright the next thing you want to do is get that connector that goes to the stator under the flywheel the two wires on it and you want to take your voltmeter leads plug one into one side and then one into the other now if your connector is different connect it to the two wires in the connector that go under the flywheel like a Kohler this connector is three okay the two outside ones are your AC which is the two wires that go under the shroud and then the center one in the three three pole connector is your actual output this one is the two top connectors is my AC input and the bottom one is my DC output but the two wires that's going underneath the shroud is the two terminals you want to connect these leads to they separated the connector on this one which is good but you want to take one lead and put it in one side just like that and then take the other lead and put it in the other side now what you want to do you got your meter now what now we're going to start the engine you should be getting a seeker anywhere from 30 to 40 volts ac if it's close to 30 29 30 31 probably okay but if it's like 10 or 8 or 15 it's probably not enough should be about 30 volts or more so we're gonna start it up wide open throttle if you're at low rpms the stator will produce less so you won't have that wide open throttle and start it in fact that item want to check it at idle opened from so we got 32 volts AC coming out of our stator into the voltage regulator that's plenty we should be fine there so if you've checked that and you've eliminated the stator just go ahead and unplug these two leads hook this back up where it goes because you know you're good there okay now you know your stator is good they need to check the output on the voltage regulator now voltage regulators most of them that output terminal that goes to the battery to charge it it has to sense battery voltage before this works correctly so if we check the output on this right now you're only going to get like three to five bolts on most voltage regulators some of them they put out fourteen fifteen volts right away but most of them now that will not charge if this wire right here that goes to the battery is not connected so I'm going to show you that this is a perfectly working charging system so if I show you this and you hook your leads to it that wide open throttle and you're only getting say a half a volt maybe or a volt that wide-open throttle and your stator is good more than likely this parts bad it's not outputting enough but you want to check it with this both ways check it with the wire disconnected and then check it with the wire connect and I'm going to show you how to do that right now we're going to check it with it disconnected so go ahead and put your positive lead in that terminal and then your voltmeter you want to put it on DC volt DC 20 volts just like that 20 volts DC current now I've got my wire connected to the output post on the voltage regulator that's your DC output that's what charges the battery okay then you can touch the ground the ground probe either to the frame of the mower to a bolt to ground on the battery make sure you don't hit positive with it okay all right now we have 0 and that's because it's not started there's nothing there's no AC current going into the voltage regulator so you got to start it there again wide open throttle there's 4.5 volts coming out of that stator I mean voltage regulator excuse me so you got 4.5 volts coming out of the stator out of the voltage regulator and then there is 32 volts AC going in I'm betting that voltage regulator is okay so now we're going to connect this wire unplug this from it and then plug this back up now this gets a little tricky probably the best way to do it let's take your positive lead and go in the back side of this connector to where it will stay should be touching the terminal in there okay now I've just got same thing you want to take the ground and just touch it to a boat or engine block of the boat engine some type of metal and then restart the engine and with that wire connected now you will have the charging voltage should be about 14 volts at wide open throttle will start it so we have 14 and a half to 15 volts that's awesome all right now that you have that checked you know this is working there's fourteen and a half fifteen volts going to right here if you're still not charging you put your volt meter on that battery positive on the back positive terminal negative on the negative terminal all at twenty volts DC current then you have something wrong from here into the wiring to the battery and the easiest way to check for that is make sure your battery's charged it's fully charged you should do that first before you even start this whole procedure unplug this and plug this wire again put your positive lead in this output wire leave your meter at twenty volts DC the only thing you will ever check an AC on this mower is the stator that's the only thing on this mower that is AC current everything else you will check with it volts DC but your positive in that terminal take your ground ground the same thing ground it to the block to the battery negative something metal and now what you want to do is turn the key on so right now I'm showing zero because my keys not on keys on now I have 12.5 three volts which is battery voltage that tells me that everything from the battery to the key switch to that wire is good if you do not get battery voltage to that wire then you have a break in the wire a bad key switch or a bad connection so what you're gonna have to do is trace this wire best thing to do is disconnect the battery at this point you can do it with the battery connected or with it disconnected you're gonna take your meter there again volt DC 20 volts what's the battery connected and you're gonna follow this wire and figure out where it goes most of the time it's wrapped in conduit you need to trace it down follow the wire around on different mowers it's different but I can kind of explain to you where it goes it will go from here usually to a connector this wire is gray on this particular mower it's usually purple sometimes yellow but anyway you follow that wire around it just so happens it goes to this connector right here from the connector it's gonna go to the key switch there'll be a terminal on there it's usually marked a or a tube and then inside the key switch when you turn the key on it connects that terminal to the B terminal B terminal on that switch is the battery terminal then it goes from there from the key switch be down to your Scylla need for the starter solenoid on the battery post cable side so you want to check that take all that apart check your wires to the key switch check the key switch I will do a video on that later we'll take a key switch apart take one out and we'll do a working key switch so that way I can show you what it's supposed to do that way if it doesn't do that you'll know you have a bad key switch I hope this video helps most of the time most of the time it's the voltage regulator they're notorious to go bad but you want to check it to make sure it's not a connection a broke wire something around there before you go buying parts because then things ain't cheap some of them are you know 50 bucks 75 bucks for a voltage regulator and you pay that money and you're gonna end up and it's not the problem you need to go through this test first and that will help you figure out what's what's wrong with your mower guys hope that video helps heavy questions leave it in the comments hit that like button subscribe to my channel and if you want future notifications when you subscribe go hit that little bail you'll get notifications for future videos thanks for watching and we'll see y'all next video

Channel: Sartin Garage

Views: 261,914

Keywords: Briggs & Stratton, Kohler, kawasaki, tecumseh, repair, charging, not charging, Blades, Blades stop turning, Engine dies, zero turn, zeroturn, rider, riding mower, small engine, voltage regulator, mower not charging battery, battery, Ariens, Bolens, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, Hustler, Craftsman, Craftsmen, John Deere, Murray, Mtd, Noma, Poulan, Poulan Pro, Scag, Simplicity, Toro, Troybilt, Troy Bilt, Yazoo, Stator, Alternator

Id: zRwkKNGkymU

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 07 2019