My Son found an old John Deer RX 75 cheap, 13 bucks cheap, so in trying to figure out if its worth restoring, I have had to replace the starter, ignition solenoid, and battery. Whole seeing if we could get it to run, we can get it to start momentarily then it stops, however while we were playing with that, we notices smoke coming from the side of the motor and what I believe is some sort of either voltage regulator or rectifier was almost melting, I quickly unhooked the battery's positive lead and it stopped, but if I hook it back up it starts smoking again, I ordered another one, but my question is what would cause this thing to smoke and for the most part burn up when the positive lead from the battery is connected? Is it possible that the rectifier/regulator was just bad ? here is a picture of the new part.
