Ariens Max Zoom 60 Battery Charging Problems

lomax0990

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Hello I have an Ariens Max Zoom 60 that is about 4 years old. It has the Kohler Courage engine.

I am unable to keep the battery charged. I've replaced the battery the last two years. I have to charge the mower every time before I mow. Once I mow for a little while after charging if I shutoff the blades they will not start again. So it seems something is draining the battery while mowing.

Can anyone give me a place to start? I'm assuming the mower has to have some sort of charging system? I'm handy and don't know alot of electrical but I can usually figure things out with some research and a place to start.
 

bertsmobile1

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You will need an AC/DC voltmeter to test the charging system and a little understanding of elictrickery.
On the side of the blower housing will be the recti-frier.
It is about 3" x 1.5" and will have a 3 pin plug hanging of it with 2 wires the same colour ( usually yellow ) and another between them a different colour ( usually purple )
There is a 4th wire , usually a flat strap that goes between the body of the recti-fryer and a blower housing mounting bolt.
This is the "big secret" ground connection and generally the strap will be broken or one of the bolts will have fallen out.
I hope this is the case because that is the easiest fix.
I make up a second ground wire to go between the blower housing bolt and the other side of the recti-fryer so there is a back up connection ( Belt & braces approach ).

Now the two outside wires come from the stator and when the engine is running at fast idle ( hare ) each one of those wires has to go from + 12 V through 0 V to - 12 V to allow 12 DC to come out the purple wire.
However in the real world of Elec-Trickery it is not quite so simple and those wires need to be inbetween + 16 V and - 16 V to allow for losses converting to 14 V DC which you need to recharge the battery.
So armed with your new found knowledge start the engine, turn your meter to AC Volts and measure the reading between the two ( same colour ) stator wires.
Somewhere between 30V AC and 40 V AV is good, 28 V AC is just acceptiable and any less is a problem with the alternator.

Now we move on to the recti-fryer.
All those nice AC volts need to be converted to DC volts and if the rectifryer is working properly you should be able to measure 13 V DC to 15 V DC between the purple wire and ground.

Next we need to check all those refreshing DC Volts are getting back to the battery.
So you measure the DC Volts between the battery terminals, tou should get almost the same reading as the DC Voltage between the purple wire & ground.
If not measure the DC volts from the + terminal on the battery and a grounding point on the engine.
If it is significantly higher than the DC Voltage between the battery terminals then the ground (-) lead has a dirty of loose contact point.

Get this far, let us know what you find and we will take you from there.
 

lomax0990

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Ok so my rectifier was a little tricky to find but I finally found it. So I was getting ready to try to start the mower and do as you instructed and measure the two AC leads from the ractifier. But first I thought what the heck I would measure the voltage of the battery. It read 12V, so I assumed the mower would start right away. However, I turned the key and the engine would barely turn. Like the battery was dead. I remeasured the battery after I attempted to start it and it read 10V. So maybe I was off track and it's not the charging system. Maybe I have a different problem altogether?

Does this shed any new light into the problem? Or should I still hook a charger up to it and get it to start and then measure the ractifier?
 

bertsmobile1

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If the charging system is not working then the battery will not charge so it will go flat.
A lead acid cell actually is a bit higher than 2 V ( 2.18 V ) so when fully charged with no resistance it in theory goes 2.18 x 6 = 13.08 V.
However in the real world this never happens and when you start pulling big Amps out of a battery the voltage drops like a stone
This is why you actually charge it at 13.5 to 14.5 V
If your generator is only putting out 12 V, it is enough to run the mower but not enough to recharge the battery.
A good charging system will work happily with a bad battery no damage but a bad charging sysetm will destroy a good battery very fast
 

lomax0990

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Ok so I started the engine, put it on fast idle and I measured a steady 27 volts between the two AC wires.
 

bertsmobile1

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At full speed according to Kohler 28V AC is the cut off.
Two options
Pull the flywheel, clean all connections, make sure the stator coil is making a clean contact with the engine.
Check the wires , they can crack , particularly at the terminal plug or chaff .
reassemble & test again.
or
Replace the stator.
While the flywheel is off clean all the muck out that will have gotten between the magnets.
Sometimes this debris can knock the output down a small amount to the "replace threshold" ( 28 V AC )
 

lomax0990

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Sorry for the delayed response but Ive just recently had the time/money to get this done.

I pulled the flywheel and replaced the stator. I also lightly cleaned the flywheel and then area around the magnets. There was just a little bit of grass and debris. I then reassembled everything. I started it back up and I know get 40v when I measure at the rectifier on fast idle. So I got all excited that I fixed it. I had a battery that was working fine when it was pulled from the same model mower last year. so I put that on and charged it for awhile. I mowed for a little over and hour and then the mower blades quit turning. Which has been a symptom of the low battery. So I had to stop and charge it some more to finish.

Is there anything else I should check? Not sure where to go from here. I'm concerned that I didn't get something back together right but everything else seems to be functioning normally.
 

bertsmobile1

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Sorry for the delayed response but Ive just recently had the time/money to get this done.

I pulled the flywheel and replaced the stator. I also lightly cleaned the flywheel and then area around the magnets. There was just a little bit of grass and debris. I then reassembled everything. I started it back up and I know get 40v when I measure at the rectifier on fast idle. So I got all excited that I fixed it. I had a battery that was working fine when it was pulled from the same model mower last year. so I put that on and charged it for awhile. I mowed for a little over and hour and then the mower blades quit turning. Which has been a symptom of the low battery. So I had to stop and charge it some more to finish.

Is there anything else I should check? Not sure where to go from here. I'm concerned that I didn't get something back together right but everything else seems to be functioning normally.

Sounds like our PTO clutch either needs to be adjusted or replaced.
Before you start, are you getting 14 V DC at the battery when the engine is running full speed ?
If not there is a problem with the purple wire from the rectifier to the battery.
Some of the mowers run this through the ignition switch which gave problems and Kohler recommended running it directly to the battery terminal.
 

lomax0990

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Whem running at full speed I was getting a pretty steady reading of 12V. When the blades died after about an hour of mowing I checked again and it was reading 9 volts.
 

bertsmobile1

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That is way two low so sounds like the rectifier is toast.
Th 40 V AC should got to 20 V DC but in practice you never get it 100%.
The rectifier is mounted in the plastic blower housing and has a thin metal earth strap that goes between one of the blower mount bolts ( ground ) and the mounting bolt of the rectifier to ground out the rectifier.
These regularly break and I usually make up 2 patch wires and ground out both rectifier mounting bolts ( belt & braces approach ) .
Then the purple DC wire goes back to the ignition switch and feeds back into the battery.
Kohler changed the set up latter on so the purple wire goes directly to the battery or to the wire with the fuse on it.
You need to check that the purple wire is feeding 13.5 V to 14,5 V back into the battery when the PTO is running.
 
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