Monti, you ready for some LONG posts? This might take me a while! 'Cause it took me DAYS of reading and figuring and poking and testing before I finally got the nerve to put volts to mine!
electrical problem
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Very first question, Monti... Do you have a multimeter, and do you know how to check for continuity (okay, two questions...)
BEFORE doing anything else, carefully examine whatever wiring diagram you have access to. You need to make sure you've got everything wired exactly the way it states...
The next thing I'd suggest you to do here is to ensure that you have continuity on the PURPLE wire from the ignition switch to the small terminal on the solenoid. This is the wire that runs from the ignition switch to the mower safety switch, then to the neutral start switch, then finally to the small terminal on the solenoid. You HAVE to make sure that you have continuity on that wire, or when you turn the key, no voltage goes through to the solenoid, so it doesn't activate, so no power goes through to the starter-generator....
The next thing I'd suggest is to test is if your starter-generator is actually functional... ie, does it spin?
Now, I tested this FIRST with my starter-generator out of the tractor.... If you've put yours in, disconnect all the other wires from it, so that there's no possibility of accidentally frying your voltage regulator (been there, done that!). There should be two wires connected to it, connected to the two posts you can see in the picture below:
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You should also disconnect the starter-generator belt as well... You don't want it turning the tractor over right now, you just want to see if it spins. And you don't want to get anything caught in the belt
NOW, look VERY carefully at your starter-generator, at those two posts... You should see that there's a letter beside each post, one has an A and one has an F. The F is the field post, it should have a fairly thin, light green wire going to it, that connects to the F-terminal on the voltage regulator. The A terminal (which I THINK stands for Armature) has a much heavier gauge (4 gauge) wire going to the solenoid, then to the battery. To test if MY starter-generator spun, I hooked my little battery charger's NEGATIVE clamp to one of the case bolts on the generator, and touched my POSITIVE clamp to the A-post on the generator. That sent 12 V through the generator and spun it. Again, I did it OUTSIDE of the tractor, and didn't leave it on very long because the generator REALLY sucks a lot of juice. This is JUST to see if the generator is functional.
If you're already SURE your generator is functional, then you need to pay particular attention to how that voltage regulator is set up. Having that wired up correctly is crucial. Here's a pic of mine as I wired it in...
![]()
I actually bought a brand new wiring harness from Deere for my 112, cost be $30 but it was worth it. That gave me the chunk of wire that went from the ignition switch to the coil (pink wire), to the "L" terminal on the voltage regulator (red wire), to the neutral safety switches (purple wire) and orange (accessory plug) and the brown wire wires to the gen light and finally through to the "Gen" terminal on the voltage regulator. I had to make the rest of the wiring, so I bought a bunch of crimp-on cable ends, both 14 gauge and 4 gauge, and broke out my crimpers.... For the 4 gauge crimp-on ring terminals, I had to use vice grips to crimp them...
Oh, oh, oh, ONE more thing.... Are you sure your ignition switch is functional? THIS is where you REALLY need a multimeter, and you need to know how to check for continuity. I went through 3 switches (my original one, one I got from a guy down in New York with some other replacement parts after I fried my voltage regulator the first time, and one that came off of Greensail's 110 RF) before I found one that worked...
Keep me posted!
BEFORE doing anything else, carefully examine whatever wiring diagram you have access to. You need to make sure you've got everything wired exactly the way it states...
The next thing I'd suggest you to do here is to ensure that you have continuity on the PURPLE wire from the ignition switch to the small terminal on the solenoid. This is the wire that runs from the ignition switch to the mower safety switch, then to the neutral start switch, then finally to the small terminal on the solenoid. You HAVE to make sure that you have continuity on that wire, or when you turn the key, no voltage goes through to the solenoid, so it doesn't activate, so no power goes through to the starter-generator....
The next thing I'd suggest is to test is if your starter-generator is actually functional... ie, does it spin?
Now, I tested this FIRST with my starter-generator out of the tractor.... If you've put yours in, disconnect all the other wires from it, so that there's no possibility of accidentally frying your voltage regulator (been there, done that!). There should be two wires connected to it, connected to the two posts you can see in the picture below:
You should also disconnect the starter-generator belt as well... You don't want it turning the tractor over right now, you just want to see if it spins. And you don't want to get anything caught in the belt
NOW, look VERY carefully at your starter-generator, at those two posts... You should see that there's a letter beside each post, one has an A and one has an F. The F is the field post, it should have a fairly thin, light green wire going to it, that connects to the F-terminal on the voltage regulator. The A terminal (which I THINK stands for Armature) has a much heavier gauge (4 gauge) wire going to the solenoid, then to the battery. To test if MY starter-generator spun, I hooked my little battery charger's NEGATIVE clamp to one of the case bolts on the generator, and touched my POSITIVE clamp to the A-post on the generator. That sent 12 V through the generator and spun it. Again, I did it OUTSIDE of the tractor, and didn't leave it on very long because the generator REALLY sucks a lot of juice. This is JUST to see if the generator is functional.
If you're already SURE your generator is functional, then you need to pay particular attention to how that voltage regulator is set up. Having that wired up correctly is crucial. Here's a pic of mine as I wired it in...
I actually bought a brand new wiring harness from Deere for my 112, cost be $30 but it was worth it. That gave me the chunk of wire that went from the ignition switch to the coil (pink wire), to the "L" terminal on the voltage regulator (red wire), to the neutral safety switches (purple wire) and orange (accessory plug) and the brown wire wires to the gen light and finally through to the "Gen" terminal on the voltage regulator. I had to make the rest of the wiring, so I bought a bunch of crimp-on cable ends, both 14 gauge and 4 gauge, and broke out my crimpers.... For the 4 gauge crimp-on ring terminals, I had to use vice grips to crimp them...
Oh, oh, oh, ONE more thing.... Are you sure your ignition switch is functional? THIS is where you REALLY need a multimeter, and you need to know how to check for continuity. I went through 3 switches (my original one, one I got from a guy down in New York with some other replacement parts after I fried my voltage regulator the first time, and one that came off of Greensail's 110 RF) before I found one that worked...
Keep me posted!
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