Hi everyone, new to forum. I have a B&S 2011 21hp Professional series in my mower. Battery has been dead for about 2 months, I have to jump start it. I've just started diagnosing the problem. My mower does not have headlights, so I can't do the Briggs battery test by turning headlights on and off. I did however after much searching find the stator connectors. From what I can tell I have a dual circuit connector. See pic below. My mower (Greenfield Australian brand) has one orange wire out of this connector (connected to red) that goes to the ignition switch. I haven't pulled the gas tank so trace the wires back to the battery, but I assume this does lead back to the battery.
Anyway, here's my findings from multimeter testing that have me seriously confused.
1. red probe in end of orange wire to battery and black probe on battery negative terminal. Shows 106 volts. with ignition on or off. When running it jumps to 130 volts. If I just check the battery it shows 12.4V as it should. I though this wire should basically show battery voltage. I have no idea how it shows 100+ volts
2. when probing the stator. Black probe to back wire (AC) and red probe to red wire (DC) MM on AC setting it shows 20 volts. This is lower than I was expecting. Should I be probing both, or just probe the DC out with red and ground the black probe?
My main question however is the 106 volts test above, that seems really weird, and I maybe doing something wrong.
Advice welcome. I know it could be that the 9 year old battery (140 hours run time) has just finally died, but before I long $130 down on a new battery I at least want to make sure the charging system is working as it should.
Thanks in advance
Anyway, here's my findings from multimeter testing that have me seriously confused.
1. red probe in end of orange wire to battery and black probe on battery negative terminal. Shows 106 volts. with ignition on or off. When running it jumps to 130 volts. If I just check the battery it shows 12.4V as it should. I though this wire should basically show battery voltage. I have no idea how it shows 100+ volts
2. when probing the stator. Black probe to back wire (AC) and red probe to red wire (DC) MM on AC setting it shows 20 volts. This is lower than I was expecting. Should I be probing both, or just probe the DC out with red and ground the black probe?
My main question however is the 106 volts test above, that seems really weird, and I maybe doing something wrong.
Advice welcome. I know it could be that the 9 year old battery (140 hours run time) has just finally died, but before I long $130 down on a new battery I at least want to make sure the charging system is working as it should.
Thanks in advance