I have an Ariens 46in lawn tractor with a 22hp B&S Intek V-Twin/Twin Cylinder engine. The model is: 407777-2217-G5. Bought the mower brand new in 2012, since then it's been having hard-start/no start issues. You'd turn the key and it would hesitate before turning over or sometimes you'd have to turn the key multiple times to get it to start. The battery is brand new replaced, the solenoid is getting 12.5V in and out to the starter. The starter checks out. Well every time you'd charge the battery after say 15 minutes, the engine fires up instantly. Therefore I know the issue must be with the charging system because the battery isn't being charged fully even though it claims it has 12.5v on the multimeter. As the service manual states, I have either a 10amp or 16amp charging system. The owner's manual says in the spec box that the charging system is: "16 @3600rpm" and I'm assuming 16 is amps. The output of the stator is only 16-17v AC but the service manual says it shouldn't be lower than 30v!!!! The only way to tell if it's a 10 or 16 AMP system (other than the owner's manual saying so), the flywheel magnets are small for a 10 amp and large for a 16amp. My flywheel has a ring of square magnets and IDK if that's the large or small. Either way even for a 10amp system the output is low(should be no lower than 20v). I replaced the stator with a brand new one from B&S and it still only gives me 18A. What is going on?
