Electrical issues with LT2180
 

Well this rat race started when I decided to buy a new PTO clutch since my blades were barely spinning up and came to a near stand still when they hit grass. After receiving the clutch they recommended checking voltage before installing. I checked the voltage coming out of stator plug(that goes to regulator) and was getting 29 volts AC. Checking DC voltage out of regulator I was getting nothing. SOOO 3 voltage regulators later, thinking I was getting a bad one from a cheap distributor on amazon I'm still getting nothing. Question! When I initially checked AC voltage out of stator I hooked positive lead to one prong of stator plug and negative lead to the the second prong of stator plug(2 prong plug) and was receiving 29 volts. I later read that you have to check each prong individually with the negative lead grounded to the engine or somewhere besides the battery. When I do this I get nothing out of stator. If this is the correct test then I have a bad stator. Just want to make sure this is correct. Why am I getting 29 volts when hooked to both prongs at the same time?? Been working on this 2 weeks and tired of messing with it.. Looks like to change stator is a major job with the motor(18HP Briggs Vanguard) sitting backwards and the drive shaft coming out of it..?? May just park it and get a new mower next spring. She's been a good one for 12 years.. Thanks for your help!!!!

From the data I have seen, the Regulator should be a 845907.

With that in mind, you should be in the neighborhood of +/- 30 VAC across the Yellow Stator Wires.

From chassis ground ( or regulator case) to the Red Wire, you should have +/- 14.5 VDC.

This is based on (a) the correct V/R, (b) the V/R is working correctly, (c) the tractor is wired correctly, and (d) the engine is running at WOT (or 3600 RPM's).

Sounds funny that you have had so many bad regulators but for what it's worth I'm not impressed with Vanguard regulators. Now when I get a bad one I convert it to a Kohler regulator. If you PM me your e-mail address I'll send you a how to. This is the Kohler part # I've been using 41-403-10-S regulator

If you Google "Kohler 41-403-10-S" you'll find them relatively cheap on Amazon.