Diagostic help please - battery discharges while cutting.

Yes in a way I'll find my book and take a pic and post it for you

found it hope this helps

Might be little more detailed here and more how to directions. Sorry about the double posting give this a go

Hi,

Thanks, the pics made it very clear...

So, my readings are:

2.4 Ohms. Different to last time - maybe because its cooler today (about 50).

4.85 Amps and drops .01 amps every few seconds.

Cheers, Peter

P.S.

Just in case its important the Scag battery was fully charged when taking the readings...

Cheers, Peter

Have you had your battery tested?

Hi Liuffydog,

No I haven't checked the condition of the battery but will do so. I did notice in one of the screen shots you sent that possible causes included a faulty battery and I did plan on following that clue today. The screen shot also mentioned a coil and a switch. In my case I presume the coil is actually the armature so I presume I should be inspecting those and checking the air gap, correct? What is the "switch" that I should also be checking and how should I check it?

Am I right in thinking my amp reading can be regarded as "significantly below" the expected amps?

Again, many thanks for taking the time to help.

Cheers, Peter

Not the armature they talking about the air gap in the clutch itself that coil windings. Right off thinking .004 or four thousandths. In us. But if you look at the 3.5 closely it says above or below those numbers. You tested yours and by the numbers it is below specs assuming your battery is good from a load test and that it is charging correctly your clutch is under those numbers. Make sure you have a good ground from battery to engine make sure is tight and good contact. Take your voltmeter from pos to the battery and black to the block and check more than one place to make sure the ground is good. In all cases in the scags always start by checking the ground first it's a lot of causes to their failures. For the switch they are talking about in the pic is the pto switch. If everything checks out good like the battery charging double check the numbers in both test for the clutch mainly the draw test. Far as testing the switch should be able to ohm it out for continuity should open and close for that power to flow to the clutch. Might have to pull the book to see just how to test just the switch. I have seen a lot of them being replaced because the clutch is burning them out. So if your replacing switches the clutch just might be your issues. Double check those numbers closely and look back at the chart just to make sure yours is within specs. Hope this helps you out. Your very welcome and appreciate your patience it's hard to explain and solve issues at times through words on the intertrap or intercrap. Lol

Hi Luffydog,

Great - will have a closer look at all of this over the weekend. My ground is ok - its the first I did when I started looking at this issue. I've been caught before with "odd things happening" only to find the ground was flaky.

I've checked out the battery by simply buying a new one - the one in the Scag is the original and over four years old so maybe time for a replacement anyway.

Will let you know how things progress.

For those which may read this thread in the future here are two interesting B&S documents I stumpled across:

https://www.briggsandstratton.com/c...tratton/na/en_us/Files/FAQs/alternator_id.pdf
https://www.briggsandstratton.com/c...n_us/Files/FAQs/alternator_specifications.pdf

Cheers, Peter