127 lights flickering

[coakes00]

Before I buy new parts, I wanted to see what your gentlemen's opinion is of my situation.

I have a cub 127. It is my main mowing tractor. This summer I had to replace the starter solenoid because it was stuck on. At that time I was having a lot of other electrical gremlins so I order a wiring harness from Mlamar on this forum. At that time, I also replace all headlights and taillights with ones from ccspecialties. I also replace the voltage regulator with one from my other running 127 since the original one had a broken mount and was held on with electrical tape. The battery is only 6 months old.

The tractor runs great and mows like a dream. However, it was late last night and I switched on the headlights to see better. The lights pulse and flicker at both idle and WOT. Is my regulator bad or do I have another issue here? Any help would be much appreciated.

[J-Mech]

I'd say you have a bad field in the S/G.
Check the out put with a DVOM and see if the voltage fluctuates. If so, rewinding it or replacement will be your options. May have bad contact on a brush, but that's a maybe.
It's possible the regulator isn't working right.... possible.

[Cub Cadet 123]

Jonathan knows more about electrical circuits on these than I do. I would just add that I would check and tighten all connections, including the headlight retainers. Make sure wires are away from the grass screen....I had the same problem on a 123 I once had and I found out the wire touched the grass screen enough to shave off the wire insulation to the headlights, exposing the wire. They started flickering and the wire was arcing on the shroud.

Cub Cadet 123

[Yosemite Sam]

Is it possible that you just don't have a good ground connection?

[coakes00]

Originally Posted by J-Mech

I'd say you have a bad field in the S/G.
Check the out put with a DVOM and see if the voltage fluctuates. If so, rewinding it or replacement will be your options. May have bad contact on a brush, but that's a maybe.
It's possible the regulator isn't working right.... possible.

Although it was earlier this year before replacing the wiring, I measured the voltage at the battery at idle and WOT and it was 14.8 idle and about 15.6 at WOT. I'll recheck all my connections to the starter/generator and clean up my ground like Sam said. If I get a chance to try a better DVOM this weekend I will since mine was a cheap Harbor Freight special so who knows if its accurate.

Thanks for the help, at least this gives me options to try instead of just replacing random parts.

[Yosemite Sam]

If your meter is accurate it sounds like your regulator is adjusted just a little hot, IIRC 14.6 is about where it should be at WOT.

Glad to hear that it sounds like you're not going to have to dump a bunch of money into it, chasing down grounds can sometimes suck.

Might try a jumper wire from neg. bat to neg. light terminal or wire, just to save headaches if that isn't the problem.

Good Luck

[darkminion_17]

could be a bad light switch,seen it before,is it a cub one?

[coakes00]

Originally Posted by darkminion_17

could be a bad light switch,seen it before,is it a cub one?

No, I couldn't afford one, it's just a toggle switch from Bomgaars. I'll give the jumper a try tonight and see if that helps.

[Yosemite Sam]

Lew could very well be right, bad/weak switches will cause those symptoms.

Jumper across the switch and see if they still flicker.

[coakes00]

Played around with it some tonight and checked the voltage again. Now I'm getting from 14-17 at low idle and 20-22 volts at WOT.

The flickering stopped when I ran a jumper but only from the light it was touching. I was going to clean the ground connection but my jumper hit the positive terminal and tripped my fuse so I had to be done for the night.

Anyone know why my voltage is so high?