JD 4100 voltage regulator meltdown

[SibleyMO]

I recently experieienced a significant amount of smoke coming out of the engine compartment while brush hogging. I went straight to the barn, opened the hood, and found a small fire down under the gas tank. I got the fire out and took the console apart to see what was going on. The voltage regulator has completely fried and was a burnt mess.

I've been reading a great deal on here about the issues with the glow plugs staying on. I've disconnected the controller up by radiator to help eliminate this potential issue.

My big question right now is how the wiring connector should be connected into the voltage regulator? A previous owner had, for some reason, spliced the red wire coming out of the old voltage regulator into the white/red wire going into the ignition switch. They cut the red wire before the connector and tied it in with the white/red wire near the steering column. This definitely did not come from the factory this way. So if I rewire the red wire to have a terminal in the normal 6pin connector, where exactly should it tie into the rest of the wiring. I believe the red wire is supposed to connect in with the battery + somewhere. A picture would be great, but if someone just knows where it connects after passing through the 6pin connector that should tell me what I need to know.

I am also going to get the alternator checked out. Something caused this regulator to fry and I do want to figure it out. First I just want to ensure everything is wired up correctly. Any other tips on things to look for would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help.

 

[beenthere]

Don't know if this diagram will help, as it is for gear 4100.

 

[SibleyMO]

Thanks for the diagram. It shows the red wire connecting into the white/red wire as my tractor does. It appears someone must have just cut or broke the red wire just before the regulator connector. Instead of properly rewiring into the connector for the voltage regulator, they just bypassed it. Thanks again for the info.

 

[DFB]

A quick alternator amperage test can be done with a voltmeter. Just separate the 2 pin plug on the alternator wire harness and read the AC voltage output. (you could also read it from the 2 blue wire pins down at the regulator harness too). According to the manual's test procedure unregulated voltage output should be 32vac at low idle and 50 vac at fast idle (2850) or WOT.