battery and the seat safety feature

[2ball]

I bought a brand new battery, started my riding lawnmower 1 time. When I am putting it away, I use the fuel shutoff I put in, and let the engine run out of gas. I get side tracked and never turn the key off of run.
the engine counter put 100 hours on it.

I tried to start it today and got nothing. I jumped started it and ran it for 30 minutes, but it didn't charge enough to restart the engine.

How long do I need to run the tractor for the battery to get fully charged?
can I charge the battery by hooking jumper cables up to a car battery and leave it there for a couple hours?
how many volts should the battery be getting when the engine is running?
could I have ruined the battery?

unrelated.
I can start the tractor when I am not sitting in the seat, but if its running and I get off the seat it shuts off? is that right?

 

[bertsmobile1]

If the battery has been run dead flat from a tiny draw item like the fuel solenoid or the hour meter it can take a very long time before the battery will take any chgarge .
Automatic chargers will not recharge a battery that is totally flat
Some times old manual ones will, the ones with selectable voltage & charge rates that use actual switches.
So your new battery may have sparked its last.I have had some siting on the charger for better than a week before they start to take a charge.

As for the mower, yes that is how the safety circuits are supposed to work .

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Bert is right. Mower batteries don't like to be totally discharged. If it comes back to half capacity i would be suprised. Jumping a dead battery to start mower then pulling full amps for a long period is not good for the stator or voltage regulator. If the battery is deep discharged should put it on a charger for a few hours before jump starting the mower.

 

[2ball]

I took the battery out, meter said 9 volts, I put it on a charger for a couple of hours and the volts read 12.4.
I let the battery set (no charger) A day later the volts read 12.1

I can test the alternator just like a car battery? I should be getting above 12 volts with it running?

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Most auto part stores test batteries for free., you should get at least 13 volts or higher while running.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I took the battery out, meter said 9 volts, I put it on a charger for a couple of hours and the volts read 12.4.
I let the battery set (no charger) A day later the volts read 12.1

I can test the alternator just like a car battery? I should be getting above 12 volts with it running?

Depends which particular alternator you have.
If it has a rectifier then just the same as a car except you also need to check the DC recharge wire to ground for AC Voltage signaling a rectifier failure
If you have the older diode system then you need to test is for forward & backward continuity

 

[BriggsMST]

Just an FYI as well, The charging system is designed to maintain the charge in the battery, its not made too charge the battery. Especially if its 9 volts like you said. Any battery thats below 12.25 could come back to life with a slow charge kind of wakes it up so to speak. trying to charge a dead battery will lead to bigger electrical problems. Just throwing that out there.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Funny you should bring this one back to life.
Before I get too crook to work I did a house call to a EZ 225 that would not crank
Ground cable nut had fallen off & the ground wire was just touching the bolt .
Replaced the missing nut which of course was an 8 x 1.25 metric as is every other nut & bolt on the mower, and people wonder why I love these JD EZ's
Any way , none to surprising the rectifier was toast so the customer was told to charge the battery fully and only mow for 3 hours max then recharge the battery as she will be mowing total loss .
I had just waited 5 weeks for a Stens rectifier & Stator as they were out of stock because B & S was unable to supply & my other wholesaler sells genuine B & S rectifiers and neither of them had any more left .

Naturally she did this a couple of times then No 1 son jump started the mower from his car then mowed till the PTO died
Now needs a new stator , ( quoted 3 weeks ) rectifier ( which I have ) PTO clutch & Fuse box which melted .
Fuse box is $ 45 , without terminals and the terminals will be 3 weeks because nill stock in Aust ,

 

[BriggsMST]

I cant stress enough to my customers about jumping a mower from a car. I dont know if people think I'm feeding them a line or what but Its explained thoroughly enough about that. I had one this year like that, The best is when they lie and say I didnt jump it with a car, some dont realize that im the guy that takes guy taking it apart and I will obviously see what happened. All a part of having your own business I guess

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I cant stress enough to my customers about jumping a mower from a car. I dont know if people think I'm feeding them a line or what but Its explained thoroughly enough about that. I had one this year like that, The best is when they lie and say I didnt jump it with a car, some dont realize that im the guy that takes guy taking it apart and I will obviously see what happened. All a part of having your own business I guess

You hand them a fried stator and regulator?