Many thanks for taking the time to reply with such clarity.
Yes, you are correct, I did mean to say 42 volts.
Yes, the two wires coming from alternator/stator reflect a short to ground when I tested them. The regulator/rectifier is grounded by wire, not strap, and it appears to be making good connection.
I understand the phenomenon that you say regarding an insufficient path to ground at the regulator/rectifier causing the high draw and hot wires: "This strap breaks so the ground paths has to ARC across the crack making it an arc welder & drawing a lot of current, thus making the wires hot." Is it correct then to say that a shorted alternator/stator, everything else good, could cause the arcing effect when connected to the regulator/rectifier, causing hot wires, and tripped breaker? If so, then a faulty stator must be the problem. Or the short could be in the wires coming from stator.
Are you able to explain how a shorted stator or stator wires, otherwise properly generating electricity, when connected to regulator/rectifier, causes the hot wires/tripped breaker? Not wanting to overdo this, and not arguing, but just trying to reconcile in my head. If we have a stator that is properly generating 42v and the regulator/rectifier works properly to convert to DC then why is purple wire shorting? Maybe I'm overthinking it, and if I am thanks for indulging me.
Bottom line it seems is that I need to replace the alternator/stator.
Thanks,
Paul G
Electricity flows in both directions.
The alternator can not generate enough AMPs to blow the breaker
The battery OTOH is a box full of AMPs and can supply in the order of 500 A ( for a short time )
This is why they fuse the battery and not the alternator.
A short in the stator is the same as a short directly across the battery.
The only thing stopping this are the diodes in the rectifier and if one is duff then the battery will try to melt the stator wires when the stator is in circuit.
Mower electrics are very cheap and the diodes in the rectifier are only just cable to keep up with normal generating and there is no high capacity back flow diode as you find in a car alternator.
Unless you are using an ossiliscope to look at the waveform of the alternator out put & the rectifier output you will not pick up a single blown diode in the rectifier.
The alternator pulses every time a magnet passes by a coil in the stator.
There are 36 ( I think ) magnets so if you are using a single coil stator then you are getting 36 x 3500 pulses a minute, way too fast & short for any meter less than $ 1000 to measure.
Generally the coils in the stator are wired in pairs so if you have 24 coils then you will be getting 12 x 36 x 3500 ( engine speed ) pulses a minute.
Your meter reads 42V but in reality you are getting 0v to + 21v to 0v to - 21v.
In a system where the stator is grounded a shorted stator will still work, however the out put will be reduced to reflect the smaller amount of windings being exposed to the magnets.
However the output will have 2 parts,
One will go to the rectifier as normal ( but reduced )
the other will be a direct short to the engine and just get hot.
I seriously doubt that the stator is bad.
They rarely give any problem other than the ground wire ( or wires ) breaking.
OTOH rectifiers cop a beating and regularly go bad.