Your thoughts on my battery

[EddieWalker]

I have a Scag Wildcat zero turn mower with a Kawasaki liquid cooled motor that has been great while working, but it's been giving me issues this year. I replaced the battery in the beginning of Spring and had a few issues with it. I thought it was a dud because it went dead on my right after mowing with it, but after jumping it, it seems to have held a charge. A month or so ago my PTO switch stopped working, so I ordered a new one and replaced it. Everything worked fine for awhile, but then I started burning out 20 amp fuses.

I can mow for about ten minutes, and then the fuse blows. By the time I get back to the shop, my battery is down too 9 volts. I can replace the fuse, charge the battery and it fires right up, but the same thing happens again. I've been looking for a break in the wires without any luck.

I spoke to the mechanic at my dealer and the first thing he asked was about my battery. At that time, I didn't understand the question, but after reading a ton of stuff on a variety of sites, I think I might understand it now. Is it possible that a bad battery would require the PTO Clutch to work harder, and generate too much heat, or electricity, to charge the battery, that it blows 20 amp fuses?

My other option is the replace the PTO Clutch at $300. If it's not the PTO Clutch, I'm just wasting my money. If it's the battery, that would be cheaper. If this makes sense to any of you, I'll replace the battery and eat that expense. I think I need a better battery anyway because of the early issues I had with it.

Who makes the best lawn mower battery?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Have you had your batt checked?? That's the first step I'd take.

SR

 

[oldpilgrim]

I'd check, remove, clean and reinstall the battery cables, both ends, and see what happens. High resistance caused by bad connections can do wierd stuff. Also check for loose connections at the alternator, and switches.

 

[Tjdux]

If battery is ok which by now if you have keept draining and recharging several times it maybe wasn't bad but is now.... next thing i would check is the magneto charging system.

If the pto clutch is electric and your battery ia running down from starting and never getting recharged that could cause similar issue right?

 

[Walt44]

I had the same problem with my Scag. After replacing 3 batteries and 2 burnt PTO switches the clutch failed. Replaced clutch and battery problem was resolved.

 

[coolreinfarm]

I don't know how many hours your machine has, or anything about the clutch you have but I have seen the air gap needs to be adjusted after 500 hours on some machines thus eliminating the high amp draw that exceeds the output of the alternator. A clamp on dc/ac amp meter is great to diagnose this type of problem. Ebay and Amazon have cheap meters that do the job. Just my 2cents.