Frankenstein Onan/Toro/Ford

[fonfixer]

I hope this falls into the right category, here goes. My brother gave me a 30 year old Toro zero turn mower with a 24 hp Onan engine because he couldn't get it to run, he's an idiot that shouldve asked for help but didn't. I started with the basics spark and gas and everything else was just minor. Boils down to insulation rubbed off wiring, shorted to ground and blew a fuse. Runs as well as a 30 year old Onan should. Realized the charge circuit isn't working. Parts cost to much for something like this that I'm just tinkering with, plus it'd be a real pain to change. I hit upon the idea of adding an alternator/regulator, $27 later and trip to junk yard and I had my parts. I made some brackets so I could work this off the electric PTO since i don't plan to cut grass with this. Here's the question. What should the output of the alternator be without a regulator? I'm getting 60 volts unregulated AC AND DC. I thought it would be a DC output. I grabbed 110 volt drill and went from alt output to ground and the drill worked but at half power. Is the alt bad? I'm confused, can somebody explain this?

Thanks,
doug

[68 Ford Stepside]

All alternators are a/c 110 volt, rectified to d/c, regulated to 14.2 volt. That's why they are called alternators. I doubt a PTO output RPM will be enough for an alternator to perform properly.

[fonfixer]

The Onan/Toro/Ford monstrosity works. I thought the alternator was bad, so I swapped it with the one from the truck and it worked fine in the truck. Then I swapped regulators with the one from the truck. I played around with the ground connection at the regulator and thats when it came to life. The monster loves some gas though, went through a gallon in about 30 minutes. Even when running the alternator at full field the motor didn't bog down. It was a monster of lawn mower before I did anything to it. Has big turf eating tires and the bellypan is more like a dozer blade. Besides, it's not like I had to get this going because I'm depending on it, I did it because it was there to be done, to ask questions and find the answers. Just for sh*ts and giggles.