The saga has a few more chapters.
The regulator I got from the board sponsor worked for about 3 minutes then pegged the ammeter full charge. I tapped on it and it then went full discharge. I took the cover off and looked, but I can't see anything burned, bent or otherwise amiss. I'm not going to fault the sponsor because I've bought other things from them and have never had any problems. I think the manufacturer made a bum regulator.
I didn't want to wait to get another regulator shipped in from the internet so I went to the local Cub Cadet Dealer. They didn't have one, but were willing to try to get one for me. Again, I didn't want to wait, so I headed to the local Starter/Alternator service shop to see if they had one. The owner sold me one that was listed as being for that application. I took it home but no luck, it didn't work either.
The shop owner had given me his card and said to call him if I had problems, so I called him. He said to bring it right over, along with the generator and he would figure out a way to get it to work. When I got there, he told me that he had contacted the manufacturer and was told that they had some regulators that were assembled wrong and I got one. He put the generator on his test rig along with a different regulator. That worked, at least on the test bench.
I took the generator, along with yet another regulator home and put them back on the tractor. I wired them up and started the engine, lo and behold, it worked! I checked charging volts and amps and they were right where I would expect from a working charging system. I drove it around the yard for awhile and it kept working, so I decided to declare victory.
It took 3 different regulators, but I finally found one that worked.
I hope I don't need another one anytime soon.
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