Re: Voltage regulator
Eric,
Do yourself a favor and order one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-2216-20-Digital-Multimeter/dp/B004F5JCLY
Or, if you have extra $$$ and believe in buying top quality, buy yourself a Fluke 77. However, the less expensive Milwaukee will work just fine.
The reason is, either are very simple to use. Yes, you can go to Harbor Freight, Home Depot or Lowes and buy a less expensive one, but unless you buy their "pro" model the selector dial will have 50 choices on how to set it. For a newbie, it gets confusing where to set it (not meant to be insulting at all). This one is auto-ranging and takes most of the guess work out of it for you.
If you do grab the HF pro model, it is also good. I have one and it works fine. However it has a bunch of crap on it you will likely never use.
There is a new in the package Milwaukee listed on the Richmond Craigslist if you don't want to wait for it. Search under multimeter and you'll see it at the bottom of the list.
To test your charging system, per the B7100 manual, start the tractor and disconnect either of the battery cables. (Do yourself a favor and disconnect the negative) Set your multimeter in Amperage mode, and connect one lead to the disconnected battery cable, and the other to the battery post. Now turn on the tractor lights. You should get a reading between 2.5 and 3.5 amps with the the engine rev'ing pretty good. It doesn't matter if you connect the red lead to the battery or to the cable. It will read either way.
The other simpler way to do it is to measure the battery voltage with the tractor not running. Should be approx 12.5 volts at the battery terminals. Then start it and rev it up. With it rev'd up, it should read approximately 14.5 volts. This test won't give you the charging amperage like the Kubota test above, but it will give a quick and dirty way to make sure the system is working.
To check the magneto, per the Kubota manual, disconnect the wires, set the meter for AC voltage, and measure the voltage across the brown and white wires. You should get 43.0 Volts or more with the tractor running at high RPM. Then do the same AC voltage test across the brown and yellow wires, you should get 30.8 volts or more, again at high RPM. Not sure if all the units all have three wires. Though mine only had two, but you get the idea. If you only have two, then just measure across them.
This is all low voltage stuff so you won't get zapped. However, do yourself a favor and don't let the wires ground against the block as you're doing your testing. No sparks is a good thing! ;-)
Hope this helps!
Steve
Eric,
Do yourself a favor and order one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-2216-20-Digital-Multimeter/dp/B004F5JCLY
Or, if you have extra $$$ and believe in buying top quality, buy yourself a Fluke 77. However, the less expensive Milwaukee will work just fine.
The reason is, either are very simple to use. Yes, you can go to Harbor Freight, Home Depot or Lowes and buy a less expensive one, but unless you buy their "pro" model the selector dial will have 50 choices on how to set it. For a newbie, it gets confusing where to set it (not meant to be insulting at all). This one is auto-ranging and takes most of the guess work out of it for you.
If you do grab the HF pro model, it is also good. I have one and it works fine. However it has a bunch of crap on it you will likely never use.
There is a new in the package Milwaukee listed on the Richmond Craigslist if you don't want to wait for it. Search under multimeter and you'll see it at the bottom of the list.
To test your charging system, per the B7100 manual, start the tractor and disconnect either of the battery cables. (Do yourself a favor and disconnect the negative) Set your multimeter in Amperage mode, and connect one lead to the disconnected battery cable, and the other to the battery post. Now turn on the tractor lights. You should get a reading between 2.5 and 3.5 amps with the the engine rev'ing pretty good. It doesn't matter if you connect the red lead to the battery or to the cable. It will read either way.
The other simpler way to do it is to measure the battery voltage with the tractor not running. Should be approx 12.5 volts at the battery terminals. Then start it and rev it up. With it rev'd up, it should read approximately 14.5 volts. This test won't give you the charging amperage like the Kubota test above, but it will give a quick and dirty way to make sure the system is working.
To check the magneto, per the Kubota manual, disconnect the wires, set the meter for AC voltage, and measure the voltage across the brown and white wires. You should get 43.0 Volts or more with the tractor running at high RPM. Then do the same AC voltage test across the brown and yellow wires, you should get 30.8 volts or more, again at high RPM. Not sure if all the units all have three wires. Though mine only had two, but you get the idea. If you only have two, then just measure across them.
This is all low voltage stuff so you won't get zapped. However, do yourself a favor and don't let the wires ground against the block as you're doing your testing. No sparks is a good thing! ;-)
Hope this helps!
Steve
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