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2005 Dixie Chopper Silver Eagle with Koehler motor. I bought a brand new battery and started right up and mowed. Next time I ran it battery was dead. I hooked the battery to a charger and the charger clicks on and off like there is a short. Any ideas what the problem is?

You either have a short in the wiring that flattens the battery when standing ( usually the rectifier )
Or the alternator is not generating / recharging the battery

Specific to Kohlers
Most models mount the rectifiers into the plastic blower housing and then run a brass strap from the rectifier to a mounting bolt to ground the rectifier.
These are prone to cracking through over time

Now for your battery .
Smart chargers are not smart and will not recharge a dead flat battery
Usually you can trick them
One method that works well is to leave it hooked up to another good battery overnight so it will get a small charge enough to get the not smart charger to work .
Or buy a dumb charger or buy a very expensive charger that has a setting for dead flat batteries .

I got one thos socall smart chargers here to ATV batteries. Yes it will not charge a flat battery. Mine will only 12v flat to 6v as that is a battery size it is design to charge in addition to 12v. Since I got a 60w solar panel I usually bump the falt up to above 6.5 v then the charger will charge to 12v battery level. Still I use my early 70's 12v battery charge most of the time.

I bought a supposed high quality smart charger and it crapped out the third time i used it. I have a 50 year old gas station booster/charger that is going strong. I would like a nice smart charger but one that won't take a dump after a few uses. Price not really an issue.

It sorta buying a smarter than you cell phone. They can decide to break down (go on strike) when you need them the most.

Hammermechanicman said:

I bought a supposed high quality smart charger and it crapped out the third time i used it. I have a 50 year old gas station booster/charger that is going strong. I would like a nice smart charger but one that won't take a dump after a few uses. Price not really an issue.

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Old chargers that allowed you to set both the voltage & current are done by making a trasnsformer with multiple secondary coils and a very complicated switch to bring individual or multiple coils into the circuit .
Tis is why they weigh a ton, got to be 40 lbs of copper wire in them.

Modern chargers use power transistors that are by nature very frail .
Most are glued onto a heat sink with a conductive glue usually made with silver or gold so is very $$$$$$
It also is not particularly strong mechanically so dropping the charger can crack the glue causing the transistors to cook in no time flat.
Because they all use a feed back loop off the actual battery to adjust the charge it is very difficult to protect the circuits from reverse wiring and the diodes used are generally not up to the job & way too slow .
The ones with a reverse polarity relay & breaker are the best but expect to pay big dollars for them ,

So stick to you old mechanics charger and if you are worried about cooking a battery then use one of those timer switches to shut it off after the hour you think the battery will need , about 1.5 x the amp hour rating is usually a good place to start .
I use a couple of timers to keep the motorcycle batteries charged.
15 miutes at full power once a week is a lot better for the battery than a 24/7 trickle

I actually have 4 chargers. 2 wheeled booster chargers and 2 lunch box chargers. All old and abused (one had a boat and trailer backed over it) plus about a dozen of the HF cheap float chargers. They all work. I just want one that i can connect and leave all night and not over charge and fry the battery. Which i have done.......more than once.

stbird said:

2005 Dixie Chopper Silver Eagle with Koehler motor. I bought a brand new battery and started right up and mowed. Next time I ran it battery was dead. I hooked the battery to a charger and the charger clicks on and off like there is a short. Any ideas what the problem is?

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Take the battery back since it's new.

Try another battery or jumper cables.

Did you leave the key on over night?

Another couple possibles.

Charging system has failed or electric PTO clutch partially shorted over taxing charging system. Either one will severely drain a new battery during operations.

slomo said:

Take the battery back since it's new.

Try another battery or jumper cables.

Did you leave the key on over night?

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Did not leave the key on. I did jump it and it ran fine but did not charge the battery.

StarTech said:

Another couple possibles.

Charging system has failed or electric PTO clutch partially shorted over taxing charging system. Either one will severely drain a new battery during operations.

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Voltage regulator bad possibly?

You can test the stator. Set the VOA meter on AC volts and remove the connector from the regulator. With the engine running at 3600 rpms probe the two white wire that come out of the stator. You should read over 28 volts. If not the stator is bad if over 28 volts the regulator is bad.

hlw49 said:

You can test the stator. Set the VOA meter on AC volts and remove the connector from the regulator. With the engine running at 3600 rpms probe the two white wire that come out of the stator. You should read over 28 volts. If not the stator is bad if over 28 volts the regulator is bad.

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I don't know where to find the stator or the regulator. Is the regulator a silver cylinder on the left side of the engine that the positive battery cable attaches too?

No it is on the side opposite dip stick. It is the rectangular box held on by two screws one on each end. It has a straight three prong connector plugged on it with two white wires one on each end and a purple one in the middle. These white wires are the ones you probe with the VOA meter set to AC volts after you unplug it from the regulator. You should read over 28 volts. If not the stator is bad if over 28 volts the regulator is bad.

hlw49 said:

No it is on the side opposite dip stick. It is the rectangular box held on by two screws one on each end. It has a straight three prong connector plugged on it with two white wires one on each end and a purple one in the middle. These white wires are the ones you probe with the VOA meter set to AC volts after you unplug it from the regulator. You should read over 28 volts. If not the stator is bad if over 28 volts the regulator is bad.

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33.5 on the white wires

What are you getting at the purple wire dc volts? Check the voltage at the purple wire not running switch on you should get battery voltage. If not you have a wiring problem.

hlw49 said:

What are you getting at the purple wire dc volts? Check the voltage at the purple wire not running switch on you should get battery voltage. If not you have a wiring problem.

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Are you saying check the dc volts at the purple wire when the engine is not running, and the key switch is in the on position?

Yes. To make sure you have battery voltage so if charging system is charging it has a path to get to the battery to charge it.

Is this the voltage regulator? It feels like it is just a hunk of metal. How can that go bad?

In side that "hunk of metal" are electrical parts surrounded by resin
They burn out, short circuit or open circuit

That resin also insulates each part as to not let heat dump off too. Damn if you do, damn if you don't thing.

slomo said:

That resin also insulates each part as to not let heat dump off too. Damn if you do, damn if you don't thing.

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I never have pulled the metal engine shroud.

stbird said:

I never have pulled the metal engine shroud.

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Well you should take it off every year or two and clean the debris from the cooling fins
So go stand in the naughty boy corner

Because they have rectifiers that changes the AC voltage to DC voltage.

bertsmobile1 said:

Well you should take it off every year or two and clean the debris from the cooling fins
So go stand in the naughty boy corner

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I looked at the shroud. Looks very complicated to remove. I actually had a mouse make a nest under the shroud. I tried to pull out as much as I could. For awhile everytime I got done mowing smoke was pouring out like there was a fire. I think I got it all out now.

Replaced the voltage regulator yesterday finally and am gettingf 14 volts at the battery while running so I think that is fixed. However, when I attach the charger to the battery it still won't charge. Charger jumps back and forth between red and green constantly like there is a short somewhere. I tried to charge it with the voltage regulator removed and it did the same thing. Not sure what is going on.

stbird said:

I looked at the shroud. Looks very complicated to remove.

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You might get a lawn service then. Should only be maybe 4 bolts max to remove it. Might have a plastic cover with a couple screws on top of it.

You need to remove the engine shroud YEARLY. As in if you don't, you are looking at ENGINE DAMAGE. Or in your case a possible mouse fire that burns your mower to the ground. Yearly meaning every year of mowing.

stbird said:

I looked at the shroud. Looks very complicated to remove. I actually had a mouse make a nest under the shroud. I tried to pull out as much as I could. For awhile everytime I got done mowing smoke was pouring out like there was a fire. I think I got it all out now.

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1/2 doing a job just leads to more problems
The blower housing will be held on by 4 or 6 small bolts
Depending upon the exact specification of the engine you may have to remove a finger guard &/or the rotating debris guard
Again usually 4 screws / bolts in each .
Pounds to peanuts the mouse has chewed through the insulation on a power wire that is shorting out against the engine

You really need to take the blower housing off and clean the mouse mess out of the engine. You can not just pull out most of it and cure the problem. If you don't clean it out in can cause the valve seat to come out of the head pop the head off the exhaust valve burn the exhaust valve and blow a head gasket. Your mower you call.