c141 auto battery drains.

[dalden46 0]

Ive never owned or had to repair a older lawn tractor but yesterday purchased a c141 auto. He told mme qhen i bought it and i found out right when i got it home that something is messed up with the charging system. If you charge the battery to full it runs n will start great but uf it keeps runningfor 3ish hours or alotta turning off n starting again the battery drains n cant get it going unless it gets charged. Any ideas n know how would be great. Thanks

[rmaynard 14,932]

First thing to do with any electrical problem is to check all of your grounds. The charging system on the C-141 is fairly simple. I am assuming that you are charging the battery with a battery charger, then running the tractor. Some batteries just don't maintain a charge, If the battery is good however, then the onboard charging system is not working correctly. Check to see what the voltage is at the + terminal of the battery when the engine is running at normal operating speed. You should have a reading of about  +14.5 volts.

[dalden46 0]

The battery when fully charged reads just over 11.5v. I put a tester on and it said the battery is weak but not bad. Will most likely replace. One ground terminal on the ignition switch looks burnt and will cut back and put a new connector on. When the tractor is running i only read 12.3 volts on the battery

[rmaynard 14,932]

Sounds like a combination of a bad battery and a bad charging system. Take a look at your regulator/rectifier. The B+ output with the engine running at full throttle should be about 14.5 volts.

[dalden46 0]

Ok. So i replaced the battery n cut off what i saw were all bad wire connections n put good ones on and fired it up. Still 12.3 at the battery. Found out what the rectifier was coundnt c any marking as far as b+ but put the multimeter one at a time on all 3 connections and all turned up with 0 or -.03 v

[rmaynard 14,932]

The R/R should have a 3 wire connector. The wire going to the ignition switch is the B+. The other two wires are coming from the stator under the flywheel. When running at 3600 RPM, the stator should be producing 38 to 40 volts AC. The R/R converts that to about 14.5 volts DC. Two pins on the R/R are marked AC the is marked B+.

[dalden46 0]

So i took the 3 wire connector right off and checked the connections and there is no power on any of the 3. Would the next thing to do is look into a new stater. If so any idea were i could find one

[rmaynard 14,932]

Before going to the trouble of replacing the stator, there is a test that you can perform to see if in fact the stator is bad. Do you have a Kohler manual? If not you can download one from our manuals section. The instructions are in there to perform the test.

 

http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/files/file/674-kohler-k-series-sm-tp-2379pdf/

 

If a stator is needed, a good used one can usually be found on eBay, or one of our member may have one.

 

[WH nut 553]

You need 12 volt on the ignition side of the regulator connector. Fix that and retest

[dalden46 0]

I found there was no power going to the regulator from the battery. I ran a jumper wire from the battery to the regulator n when i started it there was 14 volts. So i replaced the ignition switch n when that got installed there was the 12 volts the regulator needed but when i started the tractor there was nothing going back to the battery. Volt meter red 0. Any ideas y

[gwest_ca-(File Mod) 10,529]

Is the gauge an ammeter or a volt meter.

 

An ammeter may not register a 1 to 3 amp charge that you can see since the battery voltage may be up to the maximum 14 volts.

A voltmeter easily shows the 14 volts with the same 1 to 3amp charge so you know the system is charging.

 

This is why the later models went to voltmeters. You can also with changes to the wiring. Voltmeters are not expensive like ammeters.

 

Garry

[WH nut 553]

I found there was no power going to the regulator from the battery. I ran a jumper wire from the battery to the regulator n when i started it there was 14 volts. So i replaced the ignition switch n when that got installed there was the 12 volts the regulator needed but when i started the tractor there was nothing going back to the battery. Volt meter red 0. Any ideas y

Are you talking the tractor volt meter, if so its probably not working, check it with a hand help meter and see what you have. You already know the charging system is good by your other test.