Battery not charging

Truckdriver09

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My battery was not charging as the mower ran so I checked out the stator and I am not getting any voltage (AC) from the stator leads. So I replaced the stator thinking it was bad, but now I am only getting 13.2 volts from the new stator...and after a few minutes, the voltage from the stator dropped to 8. The manual tells me to disconnect the stator leads from the regulator, but if I do not have them attached to the regulator while I am measuring voltage, I get no reading. Any ideas why this is?

The mower is a craftsman command cv491 18hp
 

chance123

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With the regulator disconnected from the stator, you will be reading AC volts. Is your meter set to read ACv?
 

Truckdriver09

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Yeah I did have the leads disconnected from the regulator and I had the multimeter set to AC volts, I wasn't getting anything.
 

Truckdriver09

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Sorry I should have been more clear. I wasn't trying to test the regulator. I did test the stator according to the manual. I measured .3 ohms between the stator leads and I got an open reading when testing each stator lead to ground. So I know at this point that I do not have a short. The stator passes all tests except for the voltage test where I know I should be seeing 28 volts or more and I get 0 volts when testing across the stator leads.
 

Rivets

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Stator bad, needs to be replaced.
 

Truckdriver09

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This is actually a brand new stator that I just put on, but of course that doesn't mean that I didn't get a defective stator. Is it at all possible that it is the flywheel?
 

Rivets

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Do you have a 3 Amp or 15 Amp stator? Remember that they have different testing procedures and should give you different results. Biggest problem while testing is getting a good ground connection on you meter. Before we say that the new stator is bad, let's double check, which system we have, which set of testing procedures we used, the results we got. Hate to put you through this again, but we must be sure that we did everything right, because around here all electrical components are non returnable.
 

Truckdriver09

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I do have the 15 amp stator and I did a double check to make sure I followed the correct troubleshooting procedure from the manual. I used the negative post on the battery for a ground and also another ground bolt near the carb for the tests....just to make sure I got a consistent result. It's making me think it's the flywheel because I would think that I would at least get some voltage from the stator, even if it's very little, but I get zero volts. I hope I didn't just waste $60 on a new stator when possibly my old stator was just fine and it possibly be the flywheel that was the cause.
 
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