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Dead Sovereign Battery


JohnFornaro

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Hi guys:

It appears I've killed the battery in the Sovereign (the one with the triad engine) by too many starts and stops without enough time to recharge. Didn't help that the 22NF battery was a "second", since it only cost $40 "new" two years ago. So I'm resigned to a new battery.

Starts right up, with a jump from the 3416. BUT:

When i disconnect the jumper cables, the tractor stops.

I thought that once you got them started, they'd keep on running without a battery. Do I have a bigger problem than a dead battery?

Many thanks to the experts.

JF

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Are you sure you have a dead battery? What does voltmeter show? Another case where a voltmeter will tell a story and the ameter shows its intelligence "zero".;)

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I just had a battery die. 22nf It will show 12+volts at the terminals, but it does not have enough power to crank, and it will NOT take a charge. Won't even register anything on the charger. With jumpers, it fired right up. And once the jumpers were hooked up the charger showed draw. Even pulled completely cleaned up terminals, no charging, yet it shows voltage. Go figure.

The Kohler engine should still run from the charge it is self generating. The solenoid on the carb may very well be the issue, as Ray said.

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As other's have stated, once running, the engine should stay running from the current generated by the engine's charging system. However, in my experience, the "dead" battery still has to be connected so the voltage regulator can "regulate" when the jumpers are removed. Without a battery connected, the regulator doesn't work.

This might be the problem if the tractor was "jumped" with the dead battery out of the circuit.

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Wow: Thanks guys.

Here's a bit more of the backstory. When it first croaked, I charged it over nite with a "battery minder" trickle charger. This did not charge the battery, but at least there was enough charge in the battery to allow me to run the tractor out of the driveway, to a parking spot under a convenient tarp.

I've been short on cash: A new battery is $100, so the tractor's been sitting. I wanted to move it to the camo shed, under cover, rather than under a tarp, so I tried again yesterday to start it up, and got the results reported. The trickle charge doesn't seem to be taking.

The ammeter reads about 10 amps, and over three minutes or so, goes down to 6-7 amps, but never below that. I've had the same problem that BrettW talks about too: VM shows 12volts, but it's not even enough to run a flashlite.

I thought the charging system was strong enough to keep the solenoid at the carb running.

Funny, that one of my "second" 22nf's, on the 3416 is still full of spunk, but the one on the Sovereign is dead.

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May be way off base but clean terminal posts and cables then clean other end of cables and attachment points. Seen a lot of strange things happen with a poor ground

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Have you checked the voltage at both the rectifier and battery terminals when the tractor is running? Maybe there's a problem with the tractor charging system. Too much voltage will kill the battery.

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Ronals: Will clean up the terminals again, but visually, they appear to be fine.

PhanDad: Not sure where the rectifier terminals are.

Thanks both. Will look at tractor again this weekend.

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Should be able to get a new battery for about 50 bux, John. Even if it's a 51R it will work just fine. That is what I use, and at our Farm & Barn store, they are always around 50bux with a core exchange.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well. Finally got it running again. Thanx for all the help.

Brett: The 51R is indeed the same form factor, but the battery guy told me that it doesn't have the tabs on the bottom, which allow the hold down to work. I forgot to ask him the price.

I ended up getting the battery that is the opposite polarity of the 22NF, with 490 CCA (Group 45), $90. Installed it, tractor still wouldn't start! But it would start with a jump. Turned out that there was a discontinuity in the positive battery cable, so probably the old battery (which I kept) still had sufficient juice for starting.

A new cable and she fired right up. Fixed one tractor, now the 7119 is acting up, with "unlimited slip" differential. See new thread.

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Well. Finally got it running again. Thanx for all the help.

Brett: The 51R is a similar form factor, but the battery guy told me that it doesn't have the tabs on the bottom, which allow the hold down to work. I forgot to ask him the price. Check out the link below, which I used to understand form factors.

http://www.rtpnet.org/~teaa/bcigroup.html

I ended up getting the battery that is the opposite polarity of the 22NF, with 490 CCA (Group 45), $90. Installed it, tractor still wouldn't start! But it would start with a jump. Turned out that there was a discontinuity in the positive battery cable, so probably the old battery (which I kept) still had sufficient juice for starting.

A new cable and she fired right up. Fixed one tractor, now the 7119 is acting up, with "unlimited slip" differential. See new thread.

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