New starter now need battery

[racerboy832]

When I bought my tractor the owner had installed a new starter. He told me it didn't sound right from the get go. The starter he installed was from a Nissan 280Z. It looked Identical but wasn't made for the Diesel compression. It would work when warm but if it was cold it would kick the bendix in and out.

Well I bit the bullet and put a $300 correct starter in it. It was an IMI Hi Torque starter with someone elses sticker on it. When I put it in, it wouldn't crank just click. After a few clicks it cranked right up. When the tractor was out in the cold it would turn over but slow like an old gravely tractor. Now if I don't have it hooked up to a jumper pack it won't start the tractor even if I left it on the charger all night. If I crank it for a bit trying to start the tractor it smells like burning plastic but none of the wires are hot.

Are this Hi- Torgue starters suppose to spin fast but with just alot of torque? Is the smell from the starter being a bad or just the battery problem.This has a huge Napa Commerical Battery in it. I don't know how old it is thou. Any suggested batteries. Seems like when I spend the $ to fix one thing something else pops up.

 

[racerboy832]

It's a 21HP 3cyl toyosha diesel motor.

 

[jinman]

After your battery has been on the charger, let it sit for awhile to cool off and come to a stable voltage and then measure it. It should be above 12.5 vdc to as high as 13 vdc if it is good. Take it somewhere and have it tested is also a good plan. The smell you mention could be from a new starter getting hot. Does the engine start rapidly when it spins at normal speed, or is it a hard starter?

 

[racerboy832]

It's a hard starter Espically when it's cold. I checked the Glow plugs with a meter but didn't put voltage to them to see if they glow. I need to check the compression but figured if it was low it would spin fast.

 

[jinman]

My reason for asking about hard starting was to get some idea of how long the starter motor might be running in regards to the smell. New motors will smell some when warm/hot from continuous high current load. The better the battery and the quicker you can get the engine to start by having good glowplugs, the easier it is on your starter. Obviously, if the previous owner replaced the starter and your new one smells a bit, this engine is tough on starters. Extended cranking at high current may be the culprit.

 

[mlauk]

Clean all of your terminal connections if the battery tests good.

 

[silvertramp]

Get the battery load tested. Wire brush/grind the main ground. Sometimes the cables fail under the insulation. Had one catch fire.
I just replaced my cables & thoughly went after my ground. Works now, so it was one or the other.

 

[Argosy]

I'll second/third the suggestion to clean your connections well. After you're done a good coating of dielectric grease, even chassis grease, will keep them in good shape longer.

Look at the cable itself for corrosion. If they are looking bad replace them. Poor connections also affect the battery charging, if it can't get a full charge it won't have good cranking power.

 

[Skyco]

I recently bought one of the electronic "load" testers that tests a battery without any load being put on it, kinda cool actually. I have enough batteries around that I justified the under $100 cost for it.
Playing around with it on known weak batteries as well as good ones it seems pretty accurate. Might be a good tool for many of us here on TBN:thumbsup:

 

[Argosy]

I'm not really sold on those load testers. A couple of years ago I bought a battery for my car. After about a month it wouldn't hold a charge for more than a day. Load tested it with a resistive tester and it was bad.

Took it back, they charged it up, put the electronic load tester on it and said it was good, told me I had a short in the vehicle, bring it in and they would check it out. I've been at this a long time, the genius behind the counter is insisting 12.0v is a fully charged battery.

Another real big clue the battery was bad was you could put a decent digital meter on it and watch voltage drop. We went back and forth awhile, he got his manager, we went back and forth. I figured it was long enough so told him to put his meter on it again. The battery had lost half a volt in half an hour, they couldn't explain it because the meter said it was good.

Especially after that incident what I don't understand is how it can check a battery under load without loading it.