Mower is acting funny, what do you think is wrong?

BrokeFarmerJohn · May 22, 2017

Last week I mowed I didn't have a issue, this time was diff.

First I hopped on and the battery was dead which was odd.

I jumped the tractor and started mowing, after about 35 mins it started dying so I disengage the blades and the hour meter comes back on, I parked it closer to the house, killed the motor hopped off and looked around, felt for hot wires ext.

It was too dead to start so I jumped it again and it started, unhooked the jumper cables and the pto wouldn't engage but it would with the cables hooked up, I got another 15 mins mowing before the it started dying again and the hour meter went out.

I drove it up to the house and let it idle, the hour meter came back on, got a meter and the battery was reading 7.48v and VERY slowly climbing, I let it reach above 9.4v after a few mins, tried to engage the electronic PTO and nothing, put the meter back on the battery and we were back to 7.4v i disengaged the PTO and the voltage started slowly climbing again.

So there's only 3 culprits that I can think of that would be causing this.

1. A bad battery.
2. A weak alternator.
3. Something todo with the PTO switch draining too much power.

Not sure how strong a alternator on a tractor is supposed to be.

Mower is a GTH2454T
Motor is a 24hp Intek V-Twin B&S. Has 247.6 hours on the clock.

Battery is a Duracell not sure of age, doesn't look original.

KWentling · May 22, 2017

My guess is your battery is history. If you have a charger, disconnect it from the tractor and see if it will take a charge. Fully charged would be 12.7 volts and that will drop a little after it has set for an hour or two. If it charges up, you can either put it back in the tractor and try again, or better yet, take it and have it load tested.

BrokeFarmerJohn · May 22, 2017

KWentling said:
My guess is your battery is history. If you have a charger, disconnect it from the tractor and see if it will take a charge. Fully charged would be 12.7 volts and that will drop a little after it has set for an hour or two. If it charges up, you can either put it back in the tractor and try again, or better yet, take it and have it load tested.

How fast does a tractor alternator charge a battery? A car will put out 13 or 14 volts, my tractor was barely charging the battery and it couldn't stay ahead of the PTO switch, I would think even with a bad battery the tractor should operate normally, just not start.

boggen · May 23, 2017

TractorData.com John Deere 432 tractor information

no mechanic. but 12v tractor to 12v car to 12v truck. it is all the same Volt wise, from battery to alternator. just the amount of amps differ. more amps, larger the battery, larger the alternator, and larger the wires. less amps = smaller battery, smaller alternator, smaller wires.

check fluid level in battery. is it low?
check cables to battery make sure not loose / corroded.
check cables to alternator if they are loose or not.
check ground wires were they connect to frame and see if corroded or loose or not.

if you get tractor started, toss meter on and you should get 13 to 14v. if less i would say alternator is going bad.

there was a couple videos of folks pulling cable off battery, after machine was running, to see if it will stay running with just alternator going. and with that same statement, generally noted not advised due to all the newer computer chips, extra relays, etc... and causing damage to them possibly

=========
youtube "parasitic draw" if you think something is bad, and draining battery. most of the videos goes through of how to check and find stuff. and how to run meter across fuses without pulling them individually. along with alternator and battery checks, starter checks, starter relay checks, starter solenoid checks.

i only mention parasitic draw. due to seeing a cab tractor. and with all the lights, and most likely extra wires in wiring harnesses. it might help ya if it ends up going that direction.

myself had bad battery cable right were wire goes into battery terminal on the battery. *grumbles* wasted a couple days tracking that down.

===========
tossing a meter across battery just to read volts. can be false positive in battery is good.

load tester for battery, pick one up from automative places to larger hardware stores. any were from $20 to $30 bucks. cheap one i have, has a "heating element" inside of it. and when ya push the button to load test battery, it sends electricity through the heating element and the gauge reads from that.

walmart and regular automative repair shops and automative part stores. good chance they will load test battery for free.

Wagtail · May 23, 2017

boggen, Mate. BFJ's troublesome lawn tractor is a Husqvarna GTH2454T

BrokeFarmerJohn · May 23, 2017

boggen said:
TractorData.com John Deere 432 tractor information

no mechanic. but 12v tractor to 12v car to 12v truck. it is all the same Volt wise, from battery to alternator. just the amount of amps differ. more amps, larger the battery, larger the alternator, and larger the wires. less amps = smaller battery, smaller alternator, smaller wires.

check fluid level in battery. is it low?
check cables to battery make sure not loose / corroded.
check cables to alternator if they are loose or not.
check ground wires were they connect to frame and see if corroded or loose or not.

if you get tractor started, toss meter on and you should get 13 to 14v. if less i would say alternator is going bad.

there was a couple videos of folks pulling cable off battery, after machine was running, to see if it will stay running with just alternator going. and with that same statement, generally noted not advised due to all the newer computer chips, extra relays, etc... and causing damage to them possibly

=========
youtube "parasitic draw" if you think something is bad, and draining battery. most of the videos goes through of how to check and find stuff. and how to run meter across fuses without pulling them individually. along with alternator and battery checks, starter checks, starter relay checks, starter solenoid checks.

i only mention parasitic draw. due to seeing a cab tractor. and with all the lights, and most likely extra wires in wiring harnesses. it might help ya if it ends up going that direction.

myself had bad battery cable right were wire goes into battery terminal on the battery. *grumbles* wasted a couple days tracking that down.

===========
tossing a meter across battery just to read volts. can be false positive in battery is good.

load tester for battery, pick one up from automative places to larger hardware stores. any were from $20 to $30 bucks. cheap one i have, has a "heating element" inside of it. and when ya push the button to load test battery, it sends electricity through the heating element and the gauge reads from that.

walmart and regular automative repair shops and automative part stores. good chance they will load test battery for free.

I would be WAY more concerned if the 4320 was having this issue, lots more variables.

As far as the garden tractor goes, everything is tight and clean.

I forgot to hook the battery charger to it, I will later today.

boggen · May 23, 2017

*looks down*
*forhead drops into desk*
DOH!

Leejohn · May 23, 2017

The fuse holder is melted.

BrokeFarmerJohn · May 23, 2017

Turns out I learned something new about my mower engine and how it works. It ended up being a bad voltage regulator, mine is hosed.

I threw my battery on the charger, after 3 hours put the battery in the mower, did some voltage tests after I knew what I was looking for found out I'm getting 23-25v AC out of the motor, battery was at 12.5v but not getting anything out of the regulator when I should be getting 13-15v DC, seems I'm just running on battery alone.

I got all my mowing done running off a charged battery, I will order a new regulator.

Time to pull the deck off and clean it out, grease some zerks and put it all back together.

I'm getting a build up of wet grass on the deck so I'm just gonna clean it out properly, deck doesn't like wet grass too much lol.