L130 blows 20amp fuse after engine runs for several minutes

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L130 blows 20amp fuse after engine runs for several minutes

David	Mowed lawn last week with my John Deere L130 and had no issues over a two hour time frame. Now this week I go to start the engine and nothing happens, battery is dead. I jumpstart the L130 and it blows the 20amp main fuse after only several minutes of running. The PTO clutch works (less than year old since I replaced) and it engages and disengages as it should up until the fuse blows and engine stops. I also tried and disconnected the PTO plug wire from the clutch itself and it still blows the fuse after only several minutes of running with clutch out of the loop. As for the PTO switch, with the engine running and parking brake on as I'm off the seat, engine will shut down if I pull up on the switch as it should since I'm not sitting on the seat safety switch. I checked all of the wiring and I can't find a short anywhere. In fact I purposely ran isulation wrap around the wiring harness I had to redo when I had to replace the PTO clutch last year do to the wires wrapping up around the clutch when it finally went. That way I thought there would be no way that the wires could wear and get shorted because I had protected them. I double checked anyway by removing the insulation to visually look but as stated, I cant see any bare or exposed wire. I really need to get this fixed on the cheap and quick as my lawn was overdue for a mowing already. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Dale G. Basgall	David : If you have access to a digital volt ohm meter it would be helpfull. First of all charge your battery really good for quite a while at low amperage, say about 20 amps for several hours, if the battery gets to hot to touch or 120 degrees turn the charger back a little. After you have a full charge on your battery then just set it into where it goes and hook up the posative cable only. Make sure your battery is up to 12.5vdc or better. With a new fuse in the system and the key switch in the off position touch the ground cable to the - on the battery lightly and look to see if there is a spark, this would indicate a current draw when the enginge is in the off position. 20 amps is alot of fuse to blow on a mower. If there is a current draw on the system, unplug the voltage rectifier regulator and again touch the ground lead to the battery ground and see if there is a spark now. Repeat that until you finally unplug the one that makes the current draw go away. What doesn't make sense right now is the fact that I thought all John Deere models have a battery charge indicator of some kind on the dash and if that light is not going on prior to the fuse blowing you may have a bad regulator rectifier or battery. Try to short out the fuse without running the engine, just keep touching the fuse if there is to much of a draw it will progressively get hot, until it blows. A meter is always a big asset to keep around. Dale G. Basgall
David	Hey Dale, Thanks for the info. It's been a week since I've been able to get back to this but I was able to bring home my fluke multimeter from work and borrow a battery charger from a friend. The battery read mid 8vdc so obviously it was low. At that reading nothing on the mower would work. No lights, no clicking of the starter, nothing. I pulled the battery and trickle charged it at 12v at 2amps for about 8 hours and that brought the charge up to about 12.7vdc by morning. I replaced the old blown 20amp fuse from before and I hooked the battery back up to the battery leads. I did not notice the sparking as I applied the negative ground terminal as you told me to watch for, and I also waited to see if the fuse would heat up and blow just hooked up with the battery now fully charged. It didn't and after about 10 - 15 minutes I hopped on and turned the key. To my surprise it not only turned over and started, but it kept running more than the two minutes it would before it used to blow the 20amp fuse. I tested the PTO switch (mower deck is currently off) and the PTO engaged fine. I ran the engine for about 20 minutes before turning it off. Could all of this have been caused by a bad battery??? I'll admit,I bought the L130 back in August 2003 from Home Depot and the battery is original which would make it 6 years old. I use the mower in the normal Oklahoma summer months and store the mower in the winter. Never have I had to charge the battery in the past even in the spring. Up until now it's simply been a matter of turning the key and it always started up. Why would a dead or low battery cause the 20amp fuse to blow once the engine is started after a jump start and the engine runs for several minutes? I worry because I jumped the mower's engine 3 or 4 times with a running car's battery which I've since heard is a BIG no-no due to the amperage difference. If I buy a new battery and it discharges after a mowing or two, can I assume the voltage regulator/rectifier or stator could still be bad???? I'm fearing the worst that I still haven't gotten to the bottom of all of this and I will once again fall into this problem. Or do you think that maybe just because the battery was 6 years old, that simply replacing the battery will permanently resolve the problem?

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