Briggs & Stratton not charging :(

Late last year, the electric clutch for the mower deck would occasionally not engage after the tractor had been run for a while and shut off. It turned out that the charging system wasn't doing anything and after a while the battery voltage would drop too low to engage the clutch. Charging the battery before each run around the yard would usually get me through it. As I had to change out the drive belt, and remove almost everything on the tractor to do so, today was a good time to inspect the charging system.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about small engines. We have a 2 cylinder Briggs & Stratton Intec V-twin in our Troy-Bilt tractor that is probably around 12 years old. Coming out from under the cover from the stator are two black wires -- one of which I understand is AC voltage and the other, with a diode in the connector, is DC voltage. Using the schematic from the B&S website, I tested both wires and have essentially no amperage on the AC wire. Page 16 in this on-line guide, upper right corner - 10 or 16 amp regulated, shows my connection coming out of the engine to the regulator. There appears to be DC voltage, but it is below spec and doesn't climb much when the engine speed is increased. I don't have the shunt tool, but my DVOM is rated at 20 amps for up to 30 seconds, so I tried the tests on pages 10 and 11.

Any thoughts?

:bump:

Is the stator setup mounted on the end of the crank, or a seperate gear driven unit?

stator should be under the flywheel.....there's a specific way you test it. Not sure if you found the chart that's linked from this page but it'll show you how to test it. Most likely your stator is bad.

How to Test an Alternator and Engine | Briggs & Stratton

Stator appears to be under the flywheel at the top of the engine.

Thanks for the link! That is different than the information I was looking at on their site and appears to be much more precise.