My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only

   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #1  

brin

Super Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
Messages
8,606
Location
Georgia - Mt. Vernon by The Store just 5 miles eas
I do all my own maintenance and some mechanics but I know nothing about the electrical end except how to charge the battery and clean the terminals.. I have not started this tractor in 6 months...I know ...not good..it only has 386 hours on it..So here is the problem -

It won't start...just click a lot when I turn the key....Soooo....I had the battery on charge overnight ...cleaned the terminals...and it still just clicks when I turn the key...It almost sounds like it is double clicking from the starter and solenoid...I checked a quick pull, tug and visual on the cables and they seem to be sound...

If anyone has any ideas...I am all ears...especially about what my next step is short of calling someone to come out or worse pick it up and take it in...It is in my basement...that won't be easy...LOL
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #2  
If it makes several clicks when you turn the key once, it is us usually a bad conection or a dead battery.Check both ends of both cables. If it makes one click when you turn the key once it could be a selonoid.
Bill
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #3  
Measure the battery voltage should have approx.12.8 volts fully charged. The battery might be bad.
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #4  
Brin, Step 1 :get an assistant and a good digital voltmeter. Measure the voltage directly on the battery posts. NOT the battery clamps. With no load it should be around 12.6 to 12.8 if fully charged. If it just came off of the charger it may be a little higher. Now turn on the key, but do not start, and turn on the lights. Observe the voltage fall a little, It should not drop below about 12.0 volts or so with just the lights at first.. If it drops significantly when measured directly on the post's, you are done.. Replace the battery. IF it does not drop significantly below 12.0 or say 11.8 maybe at worst but the lights do not look fully brilliantly lit, then you have a high resistance joint causing excessive voltage drop. You can then move the positive lead to the positive clamp and see if the voltage is less on the clamp than the post. if it is,you have found your high resistance joint, repair that by cleaning and inspection. you can continue to measure along the positive side and you can also put the red lead back on the post and move the black lead to the clamp the ground strap and bolt and the frame to see if there is a high resistance joint in the negative side of the circuit. Each time you are looking for a significant drop on one piece of wire/metal that should be theoretically be bonded together and have very low or no voltage drop. Now if the voltage on the battery posts does not drop significantly and the lights look pretty good, then you are ready to start on the starting circuitry. Again back on the posts and have someone try to start the tractor. Does the voltage drop excessivly at the post's? It should go no lower than about 10 to 10.5 volts but it it does, then you either have a stuck "draggy" starter, (not as likely) or a high resistance inside your battery. In other words, it may be able to deliver about 10 amps (your lights) without significant drop, but when the 150 to 200 amp load comes along (the starter) the internal high resistance of the battery (sulphation on the plates usually) it cannot supply this load. There can be many other things wrong, but lets start here. In my opinion the number one problem with no start is a defective battery. But close on its heels is a cable and or connection problem. Don't forget a cable can look perfectly good, and the clamp and or bolt connections are good, and the cable is rotted on the inside and turned to a greenish/whitesh powder from corrosion. So bottom line again, measure on the posts, and put a small load on the posts, and if it cannot stay up with that even the battery is done and get another. If it does stay up, then start looking for the connection problems or burned starter solenoid contacts or the most likely is loose or corroded connections and or wires. Let us know.

James K0UA
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only
  • Thread Starter
#5  
If it makes several clicks when you turn the key once, it is us usually a bad conection or a dead battery.Check both ends of both cables. If it makes one click when you turn the key once it could be a selonoid.
Bill

It''s clicking twice....I will check the battery and cables again...thanks Bill..

Measure the battery voltage should have approx.12.8 volts fully charged. The battery might be bad.

Thanks fast bob....I'll check it...the battery is 4 yrs. old...it is a NAPA battery.

Brin, Step 1 :get an assistant and a good digital voltmeter. Measure the voltage directly on the battery posts. NOT the battery clamps. With no load it should be around 12.6 to 12.8 if fully charged. If it just came off of the charger it may be a little higher. Now turn on the key, but do not start, and turn on the lights. Observe the voltage fall a little, It should not drop below about 12.0 volts or so with just the lights at first.. If it drops significantly when measured directly on the post's, you are done.. Replace the battery. IF it does not drop significantly below 12.0 or say 11.8 maybe at worst but the lights do not look fully brilliantly lit, then you have a high resistance joint causing excessive voltage drop. You can then move the positive lead to the positive clamp and see if the voltage is less on the clamp than the post. if it is,you have found your high resistance joint, repair that by cleaning and inspection. you can continue to measure along the positive side and you can also put the red lead back on the post and move the black lead to the clamp the ground strap and bolt and the frame to see if there is a high resistance joint in the negative side of the circuit. Each time you are looking for a significant drop on one piece of wire/metal that should be theoretically be bonded together and have very low or no voltage drop. Now if the voltage on the battery posts does not drop significantly and the lights look pretty good, then you are ready to start on the starting circuitry. Again back on the posts and have someone try to start the tractor. Does the voltage drop excessivly at the post's? It should go no lower than about 10 to 10.5 volts but it it does, then you either have a stuck "draggy" starter, (not as likely) or a high resistance inside your battery. In other words, it may be able to deliver about 10 amps (your lights) without significant drop, but when the 150 to 200 amp load comes along (the starter) the internal high resistance of the battery (sulphation on the plates usually) it cannot supply this load. There can be many other things wrong, but lets start here. In my opinion the number one problem with no start is a defective battery. But close on its heels is a cable and or connection problem. Don't forget a cable can look perfectly good, and the clamp and or bolt connections are good, and the cable is rotted on the inside and turned to a greenish/whitesh powder from corrosion. So bottom line again, measure on the posts, and put a small load on the posts, and if it cannot stay up with that even the battery is done and get another. If it does stay up, then start looking for the connection problems or burned starter solenoid contacts or the most likely is loose or corroded connections and or wires. Let us know.

James K0UA

OK James....I found a Sears Multitester that was my father in laws...I have done some reading to figure out how to use it and when I get a 9v battery for it later today I will follow your instructions and try to work through this and see if it is the battery , cables or something else....I have always wanted to learn about multimeters...so this will be a good lesson....Thanks and I will post back with results....or lack there of...LOL
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #6  
Bob, look at your starter. You have a spade connector terminal and the larger lug with a nut holding the cables on. Make a short jumper so you can jumper momentarily between the two terminals. If that causes the starter to engage, then you don't have a battery cable problem. Your problem could be the start relays or even the ignition switch. On our New Hollands, this is a pretty common problem. I had to turn my key to start about 6 times to get my starter to kick just last week. It seems the solenoid sticks and won't fully engage or the voltage through dirty switch and relay contacts is not sufficient to fully engage the solenoid. It could easily be your battery or cables, but also any of these other problems. By doing the jumper start, you know whether to look toward the battery or look toward relays/switches.
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Thanks Jim....I printed those directions too...and will follow those instructions...I am reading now how to use the multi meter that my FIL always wanted to show me how to use along with welding and I never had time and now he is no longer with us...wish now I would have made time...LOL - Thanks again... I'll report back..
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only
  • Thread Starter
#8  
OK ---Everything is fine....It was the battery...I took my battery in to Auto Zone, they tested it and it was bad...It was a NAPA battery only 4 yrs. old...Tractor started right up.... I bought a digital multi meter while I was there and learned how to use it so I am prepared now...Only one thing after putting installing the battery now when I turn the key to start, the o9nly dash light that comes on is the glow plug light...the ignition and oil lights ( red) no longer light when I turn the ignition key to the glow plug position to hold before starting....Wonder what that's about ? any ideas...?

Ahhh, never mind about the dash lights....I did not have my glasses when I was first troubleshooting this and I took the fuses out and tested them and put them back in and in so doing I put the fuse for the dash lights in an empty slot...shhhhhh ! don't tell anyone , especially my Mrs....Geeez ! Thanks again to all that helped...
 
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   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #9  
Bob, good for you Did you get a Duralast Gold battery at Autozone? I have them in my Dodge Cummins diesel pickup and they are top notch batteries. Other Duralast batteries are so-so, but the Gold really is a premium battery.
 
   / My New Holland TC- 29 won't start...clicks.only #10  
Bob I am glad you got it going. Now you have a multimeter, and a good working tractor, you could make some of those measurements and see how things work when all is well, to better understand how things don't work when all is not well. If you can understand the relationship of Voltage, Current and Resistance (Ohms law) you will always be able to troubleshoot these kinds of problems. I know this will probably make your eyes glaze over, but here it is. E=IR E is "Electromotive force" or Voltage, (in honor of Mr. Volta) I is Current measured in Amperes (in honor of Mr. Ampere) or amps if you prefer and R is resistance measured in Ohms (in honor of Mr. Ohm). You can rearrange the equation using 9th grade algebra any way you want to solve the equation for the unknown variable. Here is an example if the E (or voltage) is known to be 10 volts and you apply it across a 10 ohm resistor, what will the I (or current measured in Amps) be? Just divide thru the equation E=IR thru by R on both sides of the equation, so the R on top and the R on the bottom cancel each other out, and you have on the left E/R=I so so lets plug in the values we know for the E and the R thus: 10/10=I so divide 10 by 10 and that equals 1 so the current is 1 ampere. Now you are thinking what in heck does this have to do with starting my tractor:) Well as an example say for instance you looked at the huge wires attached to the battery and you measure 12 volts on the battery end and 2 volts on the other end when you turn on a light whose current draw is lets say 1 amps and you know that such a large diameter wire should have way less than 1 ohm of resistance,(you can look this up in a chart) but what is the actual resistance of this wire? Ok lets plug in the values we have a 10 volt voltage drop so E is 10 and the known current draw of the lamp is 1 amp (we can look this up or estimate it) so the I is 1 so now our equation looks like this 10=1R divide through both sides by 1 to get the unknown (the R) on one side of the equation and you have 10=R so the resistance is 10 Ohms.. WAY WAY too much resistance for a starter wire that should be near 0 ohms. So when we try to pull any significant current thru this wire we have a serious voltage drop, in our test case here we have a 10 volt drop. Now if we take the load of the lamp off of the circuit and measure with our digital voltmeter we now measure 12 volts on both ends of the wire.. what the he77?:) why does that happen? Well the voltage drop appears to be near 0 because the current draw is near 0, (your digital voltmeter draws very very little current to make a measurement) So lets plug in the values to our E=IR equation.. 0=0xR and we know the R from our previous measurement that it is 10 ohms. so 0=0x10 so 0=0 and the equation is balanced. Even a very high resistance wire will measure the same voltage on each end as long as you do not try to draw any real current thru it. Most of you have long ago given up listening to me rattle on or never read this far, or fell asleep so I will stop now. :D But if you did even understand half of what I said, you are on your way to understanding Ohms Law.

James K0UA
 
 
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