Hello all, this is my first post here on the forum. I have read allot of good posts and tips so far. I have been wanting to ask how many people that have snapper riding mowers have charging problems. I inherited a snapper from my grandfather years ago and it never would keep a batt up to charge. For years we would always just pull start it and as I get older, pulling a cord is getting old. So researching the subject I have found very little help. Well pulling the stator out of this engine I found the windings burnt and open. Diode was also in an open state. Went to purchase one and found no-one sells one here and the dealers kept wanting me to buy a new engine, ( cause it comes with a good new stator ) Well that just didn't seem right and there was enough evidence of magnet wire size and turns to repair. Made up some new insulators out of carbon fiber and had some magnet wire of the right gauge and went about rewinding it. All in all it was an easy repair, and with a new 54 dollar battery all is well. It was a dual winding stator with heavier windings for the lighting AC circuit but they were in good shape and the diode was easily purchased at radio-shack. I am still not sure of why the diode had failed to cause B+ of the batt to turn the field coils into a toaster oven. Has anyone experienced this issue before, Is it from someone connecting a charger that is bad or connecting it in reverse. Just wondering why. My repair was done months ago and has worked without incident and with a voltage of 14.8 to the batt. This past snow storm we had here in NJ the mower had been sitting since Aug with a full tank of fuel and the correct amount of ( Sea-Foam ) fuel conditioner in it and it fired right up to plow the snow off the driveway. I have heard from one person that one day his mower just started to billow out smoke from under the mag and then it went dead. Gene Kap from southern New Jersey
