Over charging in a 214

Marvin,,
Welcome to wfm. I can send you the complete service manual, but it will have to wait till Monday, if that's ok.

And welcome to wfm.

Got the 214 in today, still no good on the 216 I posted below. Anyway, this 214 was eating coils, about every 10 minutes. I've walked away from it for about 7 months now, ready to tackle it. New warranty replacement coil from Advance auto, fires right up. I was told this could be from over charging. Put the meter on it, 15-16v, spiking to 19 at times, at full throttle. Switched out regulators, no more 19 spikes, but still stays between 15-16v. Probably why it burns them out. Why is it over charging?

Since you've tried a different regulator, and it helped, I would try a different voltage meter. It should be charging less than 15 volts, and its all in the regulator. Is the regulator well grounded?

Is it an internal resistor coil or just an automotive coil? It can also get to much voltage from a bad or a low charged battery. You need at least 3 ohms of resistance in the coil. Roger

Roger, battery is charged, doesn't need help to start. It had a newer Interstate in it when all this started. So same issues, different batteries and many coils. It is an internal resister coil. When you say is it well grounded, it's bolted to the fan housing as it should be, the ground cable from the battery is bolted to the hoist bolt. Thinking that's good? It works in our other 200 series. Its no problem to give it a ground wire from the battery to the mounting bolt. Is there any members near Pittsburgh to work on the 216 throttle linkage?

Randy one change I made on my 214 is instead of the coil mounted to the engine I basically rotated my coil and its mounting bracket 180 degrees and mounted it to the battery box. Automotive coils do not like the vibration a big single cylinder Kohler has as it destroys the internal coil windings. Both 14 and 16 HPs are known for this. With the coil not on the engine that solves most of that problem. Roger

HAd the same problem and found a multitude of things. First, as Roger says, move the coil. I dissected one of mine after it torched after an hour. The way they assemble the coils, they used the actual WIRE to hold the assembly together while building. That puts the wire under spring tension WHILE current is going through it. It makes it softer when hot so the tension contributes to breakage. Also, the vibration is terrible on them while that wire is hot and soft. Also, even if you have a little high voltage, get an old ballast resistor and put in line with it. It will lower the voltage. My coil is mounted to the battery box also. Haven't changed one in years now. Mike.

Thanks guys... I can relocate the coil pretty easily! I think the resister will help with the higher voltage. I didn't get to tinker with it today, but I have a different regulator to try, see if that solves anything. But with moving the coil, I'm going to install the true Kohler coil this time, the inline resister and the different regulator, that should more than cure it! It will be good to have this tractor reliable again! I just have to get a hydraulic lift, I'm getting too old for lifting that tiller! That's all the tractor does! Thanks again...

Just for your sanity, and giggles in general, check the voltage on the battery before you start it. 12.5V plus or minus should be a 'resting' battery. That won't tell you much about your charging system, but it will tell you about your meter...

Then, as you know, running/charging should be 13-14 volts, or 1-1.5 volts higher than fully charged.

Just in case your meter is not accurate...

I tested the AC at the regulator, it was 62 at WOT, 15.68 at the battery, but it jumped around. I pulled a good stator from a 212 with a bad engine last night and put it in the 214 in about 2 hours. Now it's at 14.4v at WOT and 31AC at WOT. I can't see the difference in the stators, they look slightly different, but I see no cuts or damage. So for what it's worth, even if it's a rarity, this one was bad!

lucky dog. i had to pull one three times to fix it. used stator no go.
new stator no go.
another flywheel...good to go.

Glad you got it fixed , Randy !

Wow, it was the flywheel?!? I had questions about changing it too, but left the original one in place! So glad this 2 year problem is solved! Thanks all for the help!