Craftsman/Briggs Electrical

[lefty]

Craftsman 917.252531
Serial: 060895A 010315
Briggs: 28N707-0162-01
Code: 9506054B

I'm green on electrical so here's my story. I got this machine with no history. My brother picked it up because he wanted the bag and then dumped it on me. The crank was full of gas and it did not turn over due to a dead battery. I drained the oil, did a leak down, and got excellent results. So I went at the carb and got it running very well. I'm getting about 12.92v out of it when it's running so I figured I have a charging problem. Given my lack of experience with electrical, I watched some how-to's on diagnosing charging systems and learned (right or wrong at this point) that I should be getting 35 to 40v AC out of the stator? There are two wires coming from the stator that I hooked up to and I'm getting about 21v. So at this point, I'm guessing that's bad? I removed the flywheel and all the magnets are in place. Am I on the right track? My guess at this point is a bad stator but for all I know....

I was trying to find the voltage regulator but haven't been able to do that yet. I'm used to seeing it mounted on the side of the engine but this one is old. If it's there, it's further down the line under the hood somewhere next to the solenoid. I just see wires coming to a connector right now. I hooked to those to test it. Am I close?

Thanks.

[lefty]

At the risk of sounding like even a bigger idiot, I have a stator in my parts pile that I pulled off a tractor last year for parts. It's identical to the one on this machine, or at least it looks like it. The original shows 1.8M ohms resistance. The one from my parts pile shows continuity. 0.506 on the continuity setting of my meter. So they are significantly different. The one from the parts pile is a known good.

[KE4AVB]

Let me ask this as the wiring diagram for the mower show it had a dual circuit stator. Do you have a red and a black wire coming from the stator? And the one from spares pile have a pair of black or yellow wires?

[KE4AVB]

Also there are several good Briggs alternator file in our Downloads under Briggs service info. Some are for ID-ing and others are for troubleshooting. Can read online or downloaded. The AC ouput depends on the amp rating of stator if it is an AC only version. 21vac can be a good reading on a 10 amp stator. Also your measurements must be done at 3600 rpm or the engine top speed that is just under this.

[lefty]

The spare I have is identical in every way. Including a red and black wire connector...etc. I'll check the RPM and get back to you. Upon further testing, it appears that the stator has OL while the good stator is showing an ohm reading. (I think I got my own meat in the way on the first reading). What I can report is there is a difference between them. Let me check the RPM and report back. I probably should have already had that for you so I apologize.

[KE4AVB]

Okay you do have a dual circuit. The black lead is AC only when tested to ground. Use for lighting only. The red lead will have a diode in it. IE the lump in the lead. Tested to ground too. It will be producing a half wave rectified voltage. Normally you are only for an amperage reading of up to 3 amps. Briggs does spec a DC output range but you be getting a reading slightly higher than the battery standing voltage. Otherwords if it battery starts out at 12.5 and you get 12.9 when the engine is running then the stator is charging the battery. It will be a slow charge so don't expect anything like 13.8 until the battery is fully charged.

Using diode test mode of your meter you should get around .707 one way and reverse the leads you should get OL. Tested between red lead and chassis ground.

[lefty]

Awesome. Thank you very much.

[lefty]

Looks like it's good then. Thanks for the information.