- This topic has 10 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Hello all,
After about 8 years of service the solenoid on my notrac 20 hp tractor has quit functioning. I figured after this long I would buy a new starter with solenoid from Northern Tool. I installed the new starter, but while it appears to be operating, it doesn’t turn over the engine. The unit appears to be identical to the original and the install was very straight forward. I am wondering what I may have overlooked or done wrong, or if perhaps the starter could be defective.
Thanks in advance for your advise.
Dean
-
Update to my post above: it actually does appear that the starter is engaging the flywheel, but it isn’t able to turn the engine. The fan belt moves the fan a little when I try it, but that is as far as it goes. The service advisor at nortrac suggests the the engine is hydrolocked and I should remove the injectors and try turning the engine by hand. Don’t understand how that would occur.
-
-
-
-
OK, getting back to you folks. I removed the glow plugs, and then turned it over, or tried to while checking the voltage drop. The voltage dropped from 12.23 to .4 vdc ! … so apparently the hydrolock thing isn’t the issue. Not exactly sure where to go from here, but the service adviser for Nortrac had said if it didn’t appear to be hydrolocked and it still wouldn’t turn over with the plugs out that it might be that I got a bad starter from them. What would that drop indicate about the starter? It still hits hard when I turn the key, but then just can’t move the flywheel it seems. I had no luck trying to turn the engine by hand either, not sure how to go about it. And I’d suspect the battery, but when I tried it yesterday I was jumping it from a my other running tractor and got the same result.
Thanks again for your suggestions and advice.
Dean (aka nortrac204)
-
I am highly suspicious of your battery. BUT, before you dig into that too deep, I would follow the advice an old farmer I know always gives on electrical problems.
Check your grounds
Check your grounds
Check your grounds
Actually this applies to both ends of both battery cables. You want to make sure they have nice clean and tight contacts at both ends. Don’t just wiggle them to make sure they are tight. Take them off and clean them. I recommend doing this first because it is cheap and easy and has a high probability of finding the problem.
While you are working on the cables, get a charger on the battery and look to see what kind of amperage draw the battery is taking. It is also quite likely that your battery can hold a voltage on the surface of the plates, but it has no internal capacity to provide much current. When this happens, a battery can also “suck all the juice” out of the jumping vehicle. This means that the output from your other tractor is being “eaten up” by your bad battery and not letting enough power get to the starter.
Of course you could have a new starter that is bad, but not too likely. Also, make sure the paint on the new starter is cleaned off where it contacts the engine housing and where the heads of the mounting bolts contact the starter. This is where the starter gets grounded.
Remember, check your grounds!
Another test you could do is disconnect the negative battery cable from your 204 battery, and try the jump start again. This will take the suspect battery out of the circuit and you will be starting completely off of the other tractor. If that works, you know your 204 battery is the culprit. If not, you have a cable or starter problem.
Let us know what you find.
-
-
The first thing I would do is check oil and hydraulic fluid levels. If they are way off then you may have a different problem. You should be able to turn the engine over by hand, but be aware it may take some effort. You should not be getting that much of a voltage drop at starter, from what you are saying I would suspect battery or cable problems. Where are you located? Did the tractor run OK the last time you used it?
-
The issue is resolved, thanks to the good suggestions here. As it turned out the advice about the battery being bad enough to mess up the jump from my other tractor proved to be the case. It’s funny how easy it is to go barking up the wrong tree. I guess worrying about hydrolock should have come after verifying the electrical system, which would have seemed obvious given that the tractor was using its original battery from about 8-9 years ago. Oh well, the Nortrac service guy seemed so sure .. I removed the glow plugs and that didn’t help so I checked my cable connections and went and got a new battery, and following some suggestions here on CTOA I got the biggest battery I could find, a commercial grade 950 CCA 29H, which might be overkill for a 20hp tractor, but man does it turn over now! In the meantime I had been planning on replacing the glow plugs anyway so I got that done in the course of all this. So new starter, new glow plugs, new battery, it’s running good. I’m in north central Wisconsin and used the tractor for today’s snow. Happy to have it done before the real cold sets in.
Thanks to all of you for helping me with this, hopefully this thread might help someone avoid some wrong turns troubleshooting a similar problem.
:yahoo:
-
Glad you got it corrected. I broke my 3 point lift two winters ago, ordered the shaft from one company even tho I sent them the correct part #, they shipped the wrong one, had to return it at my expense, go figure, order from another company, gave them all the measurments, they send one 1/2″ shorter, called them they ordered the correct one from china, I wound up putting in the wrong one as it was close to winter, It cost me $80.00 but at least I could plow snow. I eventually got the correct part. With so few Chinese tractors being sold today, I wonder if it was such a good ideal to buy from them. I’m worried about getting parts in the future. It has been a good tractor, must problems I’ve had were my screw ups. I’m in the Ludington MI area, so It earned its money that year. Have fun and a great New Year to you.
Max
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.