A neighbor has been pestering me over his Mule not starting lately. He replaced the battery a few months back, then I replaced the starter a month or so after that. It's been starting fine ever since until just last week. I've been over there two or three times since and this is what I found.
The battery is dead. It's hardly old enough to be defective, but who knows. It will start if the battery is charged, but won't start on its own after that. First thing I checked was the charge rate. It's charging at 13 volts while running. Seems a bit low to me, but I know many Ford tractors that run for years at 13 to 13.2 volts without issue. Maybe this ATV battery (whatever style it's called) won't survive at that rate of charge? I don't know the answer to that. I checked for a voltage draw when it's not running and concluded there is none. He was able to replace the battery under warranty a day or so ago so the current battery is new. He followed whatever instructions came with it, charging for so many hours, etc, put it in and and it was okay for the the first day or so. Now it's dead again. I guess I will go back tomorrow and look at it again. I can only assume at this point that the charge rate is too low to sustain the battery. If that's the case, then what's the most likely cause for that? The voltage regulator?
I'm not an ATV guy, and don't fool much with air cooled engines of any kind so I'm not sure where to go with this.
The battery is dead. It's hardly old enough to be defective, but who knows. It will start if the battery is charged, but won't start on its own after that. First thing I checked was the charge rate. It's charging at 13 volts while running. Seems a bit low to me, but I know many Ford tractors that run for years at 13 to 13.2 volts without issue. Maybe this ATV battery (whatever style it's called) won't survive at that rate of charge? I don't know the answer to that. I checked for a voltage draw when it's not running and concluded there is none. He was able to replace the battery under warranty a day or so ago so the current battery is new. He followed whatever instructions came with it, charging for so many hours, etc, put it in and and it was okay for the the first day or so. Now it's dead again. I guess I will go back tomorrow and look at it again. I can only assume at this point that the charge rate is too low to sustain the battery. If that's the case, then what's the most likely cause for that? The voltage regulator?
I'm not an ATV guy, and don't fool much with air cooled engines of any kind so I'm not sure where to go with this.
