rooftrussman
Member
I have a Ford 1210 1986 3 cylinder diesel. This has been an ongoing problem. The previous owner said he had battery problems and had bought a new battery. For a while, the tractor started if I left the battery disconnected when I wasn't using it. I got tired of that and assumed a short which I guess it still is. I pulled all the wiring and redid the harness. It's not very complex. I checked the starter solenoid and found it lacking so I replaced that. I had the starter and alternator checked and found the alternator bad so replaced that. The starter was OK so they said. It was bench tested. It does have lots of power and starts the tractor (which runs fine) when the battery is OK. I put the whole thing back together but the battery still drains when it sits. I got a new battery because the abuse of the other ine did it in. When I check the resistance between the two battery cables, without the battery, I get about a half ohm in resistance. I guess it is no wonder the battery drains. When I was checking the starter per the book, it says there should be high resistance between field coils and the case. This starter has a design that has the field coils directly connected to the case so there is little resistance but the starter part seems to be what is called for in the parts manual. Does anybody have any experience with 1980's Ford tractors (Shiabura) of the 1110, 1210, 1310 etc series that would indicate different starter types that would be wired differently? I'm concerned I'll burn out more things again if I don't deal with this. Alternators, solenoids and batterys start to get expensive the second time around. I don't know if this is the original starter but the tractor is 20 plus years old. The manuals don't mention this but I have about run out of other ideas. Everything else checks out. I hate to spend the money at the dealer for what has to be a simple fix. The wiring just isn't that complicated. Thanks for any help or ideas.