battery not charging?

Nice try - but unfortunately(?) the alternators on mower engines are not that sophisticated!

The alternator consists of permanant magnets fixed to the flywheel, and pick-up coils mounted on a soft iron stator. The warnng light on this arrangement is simply an indicator light that indicates alternator output - IE it's ON when charging.

I suspect that the problem here is either a failed rectifier, or a failed alternator stator. This may equate to the same thing, depending on engine fitted.

phil_saunders(a)bigfoot.com

Phil Saunders
July 2009

Purely a guess based on a Wikipedia article about Alternators... But if your machine has an alternator for charging you might consider checking the charging lamp...

"Once the engine is running and the alternator is generating, a diode feeds the field current from the alternator main output, thus equalizing the voltage across the warning light which goes out. The wire supplying the field current is often referred to as the "exciter" wire. The drawback of this arrangement is that if the warning light fails or the "exciter" wire is disconnected, no excitation current reaches the alternator field windings and so the alternator, due to low residual magnetism in the rotor will not generate any power."

I am not qualified to volunteer an answer...

Peccavi
July 2009