Work Lights dont Work!!

[Kubota-monkey]

Tonight I wanted to do a little night operation and I went to turn on my Lights mounted on the ROPS on my L35. Much to my dismay they didnt turn on! I decided it must be a fuse and checked the fuse but it looked fine. Then i traced the wiring to see if I had a loose connection but everything was in place. I was thinking it might be the light bulbs but that didnt seem likely since I was just using the lights a few nights ago and they didnt show any sign of dimming.



I had been doing some brush clearing and pushing trees around with my tractor. Some of branches may have caught on a wire somewhere and pulled a wire loose, But I cant find it. Does anyone have any suggestions??

 

[MChalkley]

Did you run a ground wire to the lights or are you using the ROPS as a ground? If you ran a wire, I'd check it, too.

If that doesn't solve the problem, I'd get a voltmeter or test light with a needle point and check the voltage at the lights, then move on back down the wire toward the battery until you find the problem.

Mark

 

[geneP]

You mentioned working in limbs and brush....Hard licks can break the filament in the bulbs, especially if they are not designed for rough use.

 

[TomG]

Here are a few specifics on testing with a volt/ohm meter. Check across the bulb with a ohmmeter. There should be continuity. If the bulb shows continuity, check the voltage across both leads to the light--expect 0 V. If the reading is 0, check across each lead to a good ground. If neither lead shows 12V, then the line from the battery is bad. If one lead shows 12V, then the ground line is bad. After identifying which line is bad, an ohmmeter can be used to check continuity at various points along the ground line, and the voltmeter to check the hot line. The fuse can be pulled and checked with an ohmmeter for continuity--they aren't necessarily good when they look good. A fuse holder can be a problem as well.

The above test should identify common problems. Of course, there's a chance, the bulb could be good but the socket bad. There's also chance of a rarity like 12V to ground on both bulb leads, which would create 0V across the bulb. Such a rarity would result if a ground became disconnected and then shorted to a hot wire, but it's unlikely you'll encounter such a bazaar problem.

 

[Kubota-monkey]

I did a test to see if power was flowing through the wire at different points. Well it seems that the problem is between The fuse box and the first connection for the wire that leads up to the lights. Now the wires that lead to the fuse box go in and out of the tractor chassis. NOw how in the world am I to look for a broken wire in there??????

 

[scruffy]

Kubota Monkey, is the tractor under warrenty? If so, let the dealer fix the wiring harness. If not, feed mechanics wire through an pull a new wire through and wire it in. Short of replacing the harness, that would seem to be the quickest fix.
P.S. - A normal spot for a break would be right at the juncture of the harness, and the point it enters the frame. If you have enough slack in the frame, or can disconnect the opposite end and pull enough back, you may be able to repair the break without feeding a new wire in.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by scruffy on 9/1/00 05:52 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[gordon]

Tom shouldn't you have a 12 volt reading on your meter if you do your first voltage test---check voltage across both leads of the light. In your reply didn't you mean you should expect to see 12 volts going directly from the positive feed and the negative feed wire or socket instead of 0 volts./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
You made is sound pretty simple thats for sure!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Gordon

 

[TomG]

If the bulb has continuity and the leads have 12V across them, then the bulb should work. If not, then a problem is between the bulb and the leads--possibly a socket or connector. However, those types of problems aren't common, so I'd expect 0V. The more likely thing to be identified is whether the hot line or the ground line is bad. Guess I left out the possibility of both lines being bad.

I was a tech in the military for four years. I probably still do some things automatically without thinking about them much. I guess the idea is that I'd already be at the spot to make such a test. It wouldn't take any more time to make it, and the test might identify a rare problem. So, I'd just do it even though I wouldn't expect to find anything.

 

[TomG]

As Scruffy noted, pulling the wire may work. However, it may not pull, and there could be other branches connected within the harness. It might be easier to put a cap on the hot line and wire around the harness, even going directly from the battery, through an in-line fuse to the light switch. Of course, wiring modifications should be avoided, especially if the tractor is under warranty.

Since you're talking about one wire, I guess the wiring uses a chassis ground for lighting, which is common. The testing is the same, but the ground line may not be much of an actual wire.