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John Deere 125 not charging

M-MAN

M-MAN

Well-known Member
Location
Bostic, NC
20hp Briggs and Stratton and it's kicking my behind! New battery this spring and it's been fine until now. Checked the ac voltage coming out of the stator (one wire) and it was 27 volts. Should be good. Checked the DC voltage out of the regulator (one wire) and it was 7.4. Ordered a new aftermarket regulator and it was the same voltage. Assuming it was just a bad one I had them send another. Same voltage. Grrr! Added a new ground wire to the regulator with no change.

Ordered a new stator and installed. 33 volts AC coming out. 7.8 DC coming out of regulator. Tried the original regulator and the other new one and still just had 7.6 to 7.8 volts DC coming out of the regulator. Took the regulator off my D130 and installed it. Same 7.8 volts DC.

There's only one wire from the stator going to the regulator and it's unhooked to test. Plug it in and there's only one wire coming out of the regulator to test. Nothing else should effect it. Can't be the connectors because they all do the same thing. Don't seem possible but it is. Anyone have any ideas???
 
Only one wire from stator? In most regulated systems there are two.

1.How are you checking the stator AC voltage? Are you checking from the stator wire to ground on the engine?

2. Does your 125 have an electric clutch? If it doesn't it probably doesn't require a regulated system to satisfy the fuel solenoid and charge the battery.

3. Are you familiar with the history of the tractor? Where I am going with this is if you just got it, you may have an unlucky combination of parts that aren't intended to work together.
 
When you check the DC coming out of the regulator, are you disconnecting the plug at the regulator? If you have the regulator disconnected, it can't sense the battery voltage and doesn't know what or how much to charge. With everything connected, I usually check across the posts on the battery.

If there is only one wire from the stator its still fairly low amperage output, even with a regulator. it might take two or three minutes or more to see any voltage rise at the battery posts. (And sometimes right after the engine starts the voltage even drops a little more before it starts to rise again.

The regulator does need to be grounded. leave it to Briggs to mount some on a plastic dipstick tube. But you said you covered that.

If all else fails, try running a wire from the regulator output plug directly to the battery positve post. (A cleaner way is to connect from the regulator to the positive battery cable lug on the solenoid, but electrically its the same.) This will bypass any open circuits or bad connections in the tractor chassis wiring. Then test again at the battery posts.
 
Please disregard this second message. I thought it over while in the shower and came up with much better recommendations.
 

''7.8 DC coming out of regulator.''

With the ignition switch ''ON'' and the engine running you should be ''seeing'' battery voltage at the VR output.

Unless your battery is pathetically DEAD the battery voltage should be a lot higher than that even if the alternator isn't charging and I'm GUESSING there is an ''open'' somewhere between the output terminal on the VR and the battery.

What is the voltage measured across the battery terminals?
 
Yes I disconnected the plug at the regulator to check DC voltage. Everything I've found said to do it that way BUT all of them had two wires from the stator. Maybe a single wire is different? With everything hooked up battery voltage is 11.8. The voltage regulator is mounted to the metal engine cover but I added another ground anyway.

Looks like I'll be checking the wiring from the vr to the solenoid.
 
I was testing with the vr unplugged
so there was no battery voltage
involved. I might be able to slide
a safety pin in the connector to
test it while plugged in but I
haven't tried that yet. Battery
voltage is 11.8 while running.
 
Can anyone tell me what this part is the wiring is plugged into?
cvphoto156667.jpg
 
Success! Thanks for letting me know a one wire can't be tested with the regulator output disconnected!

I started at the regulator and went backwards testing both sides of every connection. The voltage raised on the wire from the big plug to the fuse holder. I had already unplugged it and cleaned with contact cleaner so I pulled firmly on the wire going in and it came apart. There was just a speck of metal making contact. Cut the wire and bypassed the plug and now have 13.6 volts going into a fully charged battery.
 
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