Gravely no charge

[jerkputter123]

I had a friend stop in my shop today with his Gravely zero turn mower
model 991070 serial number 010073 with the Kawasaki engine. code FX691V-DS04-R E/N0 FX691VA20686
It had been in a small engine shop for several weeks because it wouldn't charge. The shop claimed they could not fix the problem with it not charging.

I checked it for him and there was no voltage on red wire going to the V/R.

I traced the wired back from V/R and it went from red to purple and that's when I found the 20 amp fuse melted.

The shop that had this mower replaced the V/R and checked more things and give up.
The20 amp fuse was sort of hidden but I found it pretty fast.

Now the question is what caused this 20 amp fuse to melt ? maybe the V/R was bad and it was overcharging ? and the new V/R the shop replaced solved that part ??
After I located what the problem was and put a new 20 amp fuse in it charged 14.2 volts at WOT.

I was not sure about the V/R having power when key was off but I think it was wired that way and it works. It was late and I didn't look for a wiring diagram but being it was working I let him go mow.
Thoughts ?

[KE4AVB]

I had a friend stop in my shop today with his Gravely zero turn mower
model 991070 serial number 010073 with the Kawasaki engine. code FX691V-DS04-R E/N0 FX691VA20686
It had been in a shop because it wouldn't charge.

I was not sure about the V/R having power when key was off but I think it was wired that way and it works.
Thoughts ?

I currently have two JD ZTRs in the shop now and both FX engines are wired this way. You will find that the regulator will have a current draw of .250 - .300 amps when the engine is not running.Both here are in the .270s. It will draw down the battery over time. And on these ZTRs (Z830A and Z920M) that regulator wired directly to battery side of the starter with no fuse at all.

Not a no current draw design but it works fairly well. Just not a prefer way but just at our vehicles which computers that drains the batteries when the engines are not running. You leaving a car sitting for a couple weeks you are likely need to recharge the battery where with a mower it is a few months.

One thing to check however and that is the PTO clutch current draw as I have seen them to melt fuse holder and connectors when they are are partially shorted. I replaced one that was drawing nearly 20 amps when should had pulled no more than 7 amps max. It was still working so the customer didn't believe me that it was bad.

[jerkputter123]

I had a friend stop in my shop today with his Gravely zero turn mower
model 991070 serial number 010073 with the Kawasaki engine. code FX691V-DS04-R E/N0 FX691VA20686
It had been in a shop because it wouldn't charge.

I was not sure about the V/R having power when key was off but I think it was wired that way and it works.
Thoughts ?

I currently have two JD ZTRs in the shop now and both FX engines are wired this way. You will find that the regulator will have a current draw of .250 - .300 amps when the engine is not running.Both here are in the .270s. It will draw down the battery over time. And on these ZTRs (Z830A and Z920M) that regulator wired directly to battery side of the starter with no fuse at all.

Not a no current draw design but it works fairly well. Just not a prefer way but just at our vehicles which computers that drains the batteries when the engines are not running. You leaving a car sitting for a couple weeks you are likely need to recharge the battery where with a mower it is a few months.

One thing to check however and that is the PTO clutch current draw as I have seen them to melt fuse holder and connectors when they are are partially shorted. I replaced one that was drawing nearly 20 amps when should had pulled no more than 7 amps max. It was still working so the customer didn't believe me that it was bad.

Thanks, I sort of doubt he will use it again until next spring but for now its working.
When he left my shop he said he was putting it up for the season, at least that's what he told me. He was just happy after not being able to use this mower all summer it is now charging.

I just needed to make sure it was supposed to have 12 volts going to V/R without key on which it does.