950M Battery issues?

Hey all,

I own a JD Z 950M and I'm constantly having dead battery issues. I put a brand new batter in it just in July and it was dead this past weekend. I jumped it and tried cutting grass and the mower deck quit and I got the blinking light indicator that equates to battery issues. So I slow charged it over night and it fired right up with no issues the next day but I know it will slowly drain. I'm on my 3rd battery and the mower has 60 hours. Any suggestions? Thank you

BigDeer said:

Hey all,

I own a JD Z 950M and I'm constantly having dead battery issues. I put a brand new batter in it just in July and it was dead this past weekend. I jumped it and tried cutting grass and the mower deck quit and I got the blinking light indicator that equates to battery issues. So I slow charged it over night and it fired right up with no issues the next day but I know it will slowly drain. I'm on my 3rd battery and the mower has 60 hours. Any suggestions? Thank you

Click to expand...

They don't make batteries as good as they used to.

Have you tested voltage at the battery while engine is running to see if engine is charging the battery?


You could get a battery disconnect switch and disconnect the battery while it is not in use.

shiftsuper175607 said:

They don't make batteries as good as they used to.

Have you tested voltage at the battery while engine is running to see if engine is charging the battery?


You could get a battery disconnect switch and disconnect the battery while it is not in use.

Click to expand...

SS175607,

I talked with our grounds crew here at work and they told me to test it as well. I plan on doing that tonight before cutting grass. If it isn't charging the battery after turning on what should I do? They mentioned it could be a couple wheels that charge? I could't find anything about this on google. Maybe I should call a JD dealer but I thinking they'll "want to look at it" and charge to dang much.

I will say it takes quit a hit when starting up, seems like such a small batter for that engine. I'll report back on the voltage readings, thanks!

shiftsuper175607 said:

They don't make batteries as good as they used to.

Have you tested voltage at the battery while engine is running to see if engine is charging the battery?


You could get a battery disconnect switch and disconnect the battery while it is not in use.

Click to expand...

I had around high 11s to low 12s before starting and then had around 12.5 while it was running, but this is the second time I've started it since I over night charged it. I'll just keep testing before each start I guess???

BigDeer said:

I had around high 11s to low 12s before starting and then had around 12.5 while it was running, but this is the second time I've started it since I over night charged it. I'll just keep testing before each start I guess???

Click to expand...

Measure the battery voltage engine at full speed and blades turned on.
If you don't have 13 V or better then you have a problem with the charging circuit.
Locate the rectifier and measure the voltage on the outside terminals to ground on the AC setting
Also measure between them on the AC scale
Between should be around 30V
To ground should be around 15 V