(Another) Charging Problem on 149
 

I rewired the whole tractor - 12ga stranded - leaving only the battery cables since they appeared to be in good condition with good continuity.

I replaced the battery and the s/g turned better than it has in a long time - faster/harder :biggrin2:

Initially I noticed the ammeter was indicating a charge and I was very excited; but I am not so smart and had connected the ammeter backwards.

After correctly wiring the ammeter and replacing the battery - still no charge.

So I went to bed last night and thought about verifying the ground on the v/r and polarizing the generator - so this morning I replaced the ground wire and started the tractor.

I then took a jumper from the A terminal on the generator to the Batt terminal on the v/r - I got a small spark as expected but still no charge. I accomplished this several (3 or 4) times but still nothing. Only question - should I leave the jumper for more than a split second or just long enough to get a spark?

Pics attached of the wiring and the insides of the V/R - the points in the v/r move freely by hand - but with the engine running I don't see any movement.

Any suggestions? Replace v/r? It looks good but I don't know how old it is or if it working.

Thanks a ton!

"IF" your harness is correct and wired correctly, did you check here...??... S/G Test

Follow Roland's test procedures as stated above and double check to be wired correctly, sounds like you did, just make sure. Check your grounds for clean and tightness.

If s/g passes, read up on adjustments to the v/r itself. It has a normally open and normally closed set of tips inside that one set are adjustable, make sure that the tips are not pitted and corroded. Good luck and keep us posted.

Been a lonnnnng while since I worked on a mechanical V/R, but I do seem to sort of very vaguely remember that the contacts on V/R's would sometimes corrode/oxidize so that there was not good continuity, or sometimes would even stick. A very fine points file/relay contact burnish tool may fix that for you.

V/R is bad. Started tractor and ran it at half throttle, grounded the F terminal and BINGO the ammeter pegged at full charge and a resulting drop in RPM due to the load on the engine.

I'm a smarter man...Thanks for the help on this topic. More to come I'm sure.:beerchug:

Verify the ground to the VR is good before you replace it.

Just before I did this test I replaced the ground on the v/r. One other post said there are adjustments to make on the v/r so I found a delco remy publication on troubleshooting and making adjustments to the v/r....I'm not smart enough to decipher what that meant. :bigthink:

If anyone has any suggestions on adjustments for the v/r I'm all ears. I have bought a new one in the meantime but it hasn't arrived yet so I will try cleaning the contacts but not sure what else to do.
'
Thanks for all the posts. J Rob

Charging Problem Fixed
 

Turned out it was the V/R.
Bought the new V/R from NAPA and it has 3 terminals on one side and a 4th terminal on the underneath / bottom side.

I initially didn't realize the bottom terminal was the GEN terminal and grounded it. I plugged the Armature wire to the L(oad) terminal, the BAT to the BAT and the F(ield) to the F terminal.

When I connected the battery....sparks.

I did some more reading and realized the terminal on the bottom was the GEN. I also realized that this new v/r grounds to the mounting bracket, so I attached the ground wire to the mounting bracket and ground to bare metal just under the mounting bracket for good contact.

After all wires were connected properly - Charging on the ammeter.:beerchug:

Voltmeter to the Armature on the generator read 13.5 V.

turns out the old v/r was in worse shape than I thought - very happy this is charging now -

Can you share that part number? Is it a VR896?

VR896 is the NAPA Cross Reference for the Cub Cadet V/R.