Wife can't mow, need assistance please.....

[Wilber256]

Its called RSVP ( Retired & Senior Volunteer Program ) and funded by federal, state, and local governments. They also get money from United Way and contributions from people. I work through a three county program called Department of aging and youth. As far as I know its a well run national program and they like a lot of paper work to go along with it. Then once a year they give us a nice meal with a good speech as to all the good we are doing.

Reynoldston, That is a wonderful thing you are doing, believe me someday you will be rewarded. I live in the country but in Tupelo about 25 miles NE of me they have meals on wheels, I think that is a great program they deliver daily meals to the shut in and the elderly that are unable to prepare their meals for one reason or another. That is the way we are suppose to treat each other, compassion, concern, care, kindness etc.

bartsmobile1, I can't find the alt/rectifier anywhere it must be internal. So the blade PTO is located under the mower on the motor shaft? Is this correct? My son in law has some portable metal ramps I will back up on them and have a look. One thing I did find was a loose oil filter and oil grime a everywhere oil will barely touch the stick, thank God I saw it as my wife is a typical women, crank it and drive it untill something is wrong, broken or just quits,she told me she did not know how to check the oil, I told her there is a dip stick, she replied she did not know what or where that is. So the oil and filter will need changing as its been two years since my cousin changed it for us, so it needs it badly. I feel certain it is way past needing a good grease job, as it probably has not been done in 10 years prior to my injury, both of the metal covers over the front wheel joints are missing and need replacing along with the small plastic anti scalp (?) wheels need replacing, man this think is fixing to run into some money. I better find something to sale to raise some money. Anyone needing some HVAC parts and a few tools, will sell some cheap, old Sears railroad pocket watch with a plastic display case, I have no idea if it has some gold in it but I doubt it as it was a working mans watch. Old pipes and tobacco canister and pipe holder along with pipe lighter. And other items....

 

[reynoldston]

You are 99% bedridden and with mowing 4 acres of lawn. You and your son in law are under the lawn mower trying to fix it??? Then you are going to sell all your belongings to fix this mower. There is a lot more to making the repairs then having then a bunch of people on a forum making guesses as what is wrong with your mower. Belts coming off- bad pulleys, bearings. bent brackets, and the list can go on. Charging system- blown fuse, loose wires, bad stator, bad voltage regulator etc. If your are going to fix it yourself do only one thing at a time and think things out or you can end up with a large pile of parts. I have a ATV in my shop that the owner did that with and gave up on it and all it did is to make my job harder. I do feel sorry for you but it might be time to cut back on the size of your lawn a little and maybe get a smaller used cheap mower. I really do hope you the best of luck on repairing your mower because its hard to have to give up the things in in your life you enjoy. My wife is handicap so I am seeing this happen all the time.

 

[Wilber256]

Very true statements reynoldston, but, to fully understand the financial situation you have to be on the inside looking out, not the outside looking in, I am not trying to save money by fixing the mower myself, I am not a tightwad and have repaired a many of items after Bill and Joe tried and as you mentioned made matters worse. I am trying to fix my mower because I don't have the money to pay someone else to do it for me, plain and simple, oh yes I could manage to come up with some of it by not using all my prescriptions next month or cut back on other things like food, power etc. but those items have been cut back pretty close and it never fails, I mean never, when we can manage to get ahead a few dollars then something happends that will use that up and in many cases more. I am up to my cow licks in debt , mostly to high interest finance companies as my credit is ruined due to not being able to make all payments each month, we have to skip one or two on good months and three or four on bad months. Depending on the cost of just parts alone, it is quite possible I will be borrowing more on one of those and forced to refinance the money I am already financed on, so that would make it paying back 300% more than what was original borrowed, we recently had to redo a loan for $1000.00 to have a couple of limbs cut that were hanging over our house, well that $1000.00 will wind up being over $2000.00 if we don't have to borrow more on that one, believe me it's not fun living this way, it may take a month or three to be able to afford the parts, so the mower may still be sitting for who knows how long. I am not a parts changer myself, I have always prided myself in troubleshooting instead of throwing parts at something until it is fixed, I hope that that is what you guys are going to be able to help me with, narrow it down to one or two items, it can't be a bucket load of items that would cause the charging problem or belt comming off while trying to engage the blades. Depending on cost, it may require prolonging one of the repairs, we have been using the jumpstarters for 4-5 years this year so another season won't hurt, I am hopeing the charging problem is less than the $180.00 jump starter, I had rather spend that on a permanent repair, but if it's $250 + then we will continue as we have if we can get the thing to mow.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Reynoldston, That is a wonderful thing you are doing, believe me someday you will be rewarded. I live in the country but in Tupelo about 25 miles NE of me they have meals on wheels, I think that is a great program they deliver daily meals to the shut in and the elderly that are unable to prepare their meals for one reason or another. That is the way we are suppose to treat each other, compassion, concern, care, kindness etc.

bartsmobile1, I can't find the alt/rectifier anywhere it must be internal. So the blade PTO is located under the mower on the motor shaft? Is this correct? My son in law has some portable metal ramps I will back up on them and have a look. One thing I did find was a loose oil filter and oil grime a everywhere oil will barely touch the stick, thank God I saw it as my wife is a typical women, crank it and drive it untill something is wrong, broken or just quits,she told me she did not know how to check the oil, I told her there is a dip stick, she replied she did not know what or where that is. So the oil and filter will need changing as its been two years since my cousin changed it for us, so it needs it badly. I feel certain it is way past needing a good grease job, as it probably has not been done in 10 years prior to my injury, both of the metal covers over the front wheel joints are missing and need replacing along with the small plastic anti scalp (?) wheels need replacing, man this think is fixing to run into some money. I better find something to sale to raise some money. Anyone needing some HVAC parts and a few tools, will sell some cheap, old Sears railroad pocket watch with a plastic display case, I have no idea if it has some gold in it but I doubt it as it was a working mans watch. Old pipes and tobacco canister and pipe holder along with pipe lighter. And other items....

This is what you are looking for

Right above the yellow oil filter is a rectangle sort of shape with 3 wires hanging off it. Two white & one purple.
That is the rectifiec/ regulator and yours will be in the same place.
You will probably skin your knuckles on it when you replace the oil filter
It is held in by the two screws, one either side and on the picture the right screw ( foreward one ) has the earth strap on it.
With the engine running you should get 30V to 40V AC between the two white wires and 12V to 14 V DC between the purple one & earth.
The purple wire goes back to the ignition switch and then the battery to recharge it and has a bad habbit of breaking so on a few mowers I have pulled it off and run a wire directly from the middle terminal to the battery posative terminal.
I gather some one got under the mower, so what was the resistanc readings for the PTO clutch ?

 

[Wilber256]

The engine in the picture looks nothing like my engine, my flywheel/screen is 90 degrees from this picture (behind the drivers seat, but lower) I found the part you mentioned and was going to ask about it, the location is lower and towards the seat from the pic, barely can see it, I assume it's some type regulator it appears to recess into the edge of the motor, I will take it loose tomorrow if I can get out of bed, would some pics help in anyway? If so I will take some with this iPad. I am one tired worn out, beat up, cut up bloody old man from working on this mower all day, I probably did one hour work in 8 + hours work 5 minutes rest for 20, but I believe I have fixed the belt problem, the tension/idler arm and pulley/sheave was loose just flopping around, I tighten it and gathered enough strength to wrestle the belt on, good and tight no wobble, looks good. I will need the right front wheel rebuilt, it was flopping around like a fish out of water, thr axle is worn flat where the hub has been turning, no bearings came out but a bunch of other stuff fell out when I pulled the axle out, probably have to get the dealer to rebuild it as I don't have a clue what is what and what order anything goes in, I suppose I could disassemble the other wheel but I am afraid it may come apart and then I will have to pay for two, it is good and tight I will pick up some alimites and grease all areas after I purchas another grease gun, mine bought the farm, I worked on it for two hours with no luck it must have broken with one of my guys and never said anything, I bet I have/had 4-5 of them but this one is all I could find the others are probably at a pawn shop or someone's house, I even had a battery powered one, mini ones, heavy duty ones, well no more. I need to replace a bearing in the pivot assembly of the fork for the same side as the wheel axle, I have it soaking in diesel fuel to clean and may try to repackage it if I can get if unfrozen from rust, race appears to be ok just see the imprinted shape of the rusted bearing but feels smooth. After finally getting the mower on the ramps I could not find any sign of a alternator, spindles with blades, and the main spindle(?) where the drive belt goes to the blade belt that's all I saw, am I overlooking something? If I get the wheel rebuilt and a couple of anti scalp wheels replaced we can survive just as we have in the past, would be nice to get the thing where it will charge but can get by without it. Thanks everyone, I really do appreaciate all the input I will add more tomorrow if possible.

 

[Wilber256]

Hello Guys, Finally able to hobbled out to the mower at 12:30, I pulled the little harness off and cleaned it with an electrical cleaner then started the mower to check for voltage the blue wire had 12.2 volts DC to ground the two white wires had 0 voltage DC to ground and 0 voltage DC between the two, the ground strap appears to be in good shape thought maybe tommorrow to remove the entire thing and give it all a good bath in electrical cleaner and wire brush where the bonding strap is attached to the motor. I engaged the blades and all seemed to work ok, before they would not engage and the belt would jump off so hopefully that has solved the problem, I did notice a alamite fitting on the tension pivot so I will grease it when someone will carry me to town to get another grease gun. Will need three wheels replaced and 2 spindle/axle/sleeve and nuts and washers. Anyone know of a good place to get parts without mortgaging the house? I don't mind ordering over the web if it's a place and reasonable, then I can use PayPal and pay it out monthly, if thet accept it. I will keep post comming and please keep suggestions and comments comming, I really need the advice and motivation as it's pretty rough bending, stooping, twisting etc, etc. about dead this evening, my wife had to Doctor all the fresh and old wounds along with was my hands, arms, etc. as I can't stand at the sink long enough to wash up, showers are rare for me because of the risk of falling, I have to hang on with one hand and wash with the other can't bend over or raise my legs so a whore bath (sink) is a lot better for me. Enough about me, sorry I don't get to chat with many people so when I do I will talk your head off. Goodnight all, and thanks......

 

[Wilber256]

Sorry, I forgot, my blade clutch is on the very back of the mower, it was replaced about 5 years ago and I assume it works proper as when you pull the engage knob out the blades engage and work. Thanks

 

[bertsmobile1]

Sorry, I forgot, my blade clutch is on the very back of the mower, it was replaced about 5 years ago and I assume it works proper as when you pull the engage knob out the blades engage and work. Thanks

Assume nothing.

The white wires are the direct feed off the stator and are AC so you need to measure the AV voltage between them.
12,2 on the output wire is too low.
Please do the tests again .
We need the AC voltage between the two white wires and the DC voltage with the motor running full speed and again with the motor running full speed and the blades engaged so you will need two people to do that one.

 

[Wilber256]

OK, Sorry, after re-reading your post on the voltage checking, I realized the white wires were suppose to be A/C voltage, I thought to myself as I was doing this test that something is not right as this is a alternator system that produces A/C voltage why am I only checking for D/C? That's why I rechecked your post to assure I had followed instructions correctly, which I had not. I had the mower at about 50% throttle when I made the test,. I will recheck and repost results, forgive my forgetfulness as I am on enough meds to make a Elephant forget what species he is and my mind is still in shock from my injury, 180 degree turn around from working 16-20 hour days to on my back or good days on my *** is hard for me to grasp.

 

[bertsmobile1]

No ned to appologise to me.
It is your mower, I am just trying to help you get it running properly