Yanmar 1500D display questions/lights

[boduke_43235]

My Yanmar 1500 has a switch to the left of steering wheel that can be set in 3 directions. In the '9-o-clock', '12-o-clock', & '3-o-clock positions'. What does this switch do? There has been an orange light that has been coming on too when I have been driving my tractor. My tractor has not been starting as easily as it normally had and I'm wondering if I accidentally turned it to the wrong position when I wasn't looking. It has been hard starting. I have to release the crank & get it moving to get it started. Is there a switch that you can manually turn on and off to charge it or is this something that should go auto. Thanks.

 

[jimstractors]

That's your turn signal switch.
Orange light is temp light.
Might be running hot.
Flush radiator out, make sure it has good airflow, put about 30% anti-freeze and the rest water.
You have no waterpump, so the cooling system has to be kept clean.
Charging systems are marginal on these tractors. Make sure you have a good battery.

 

[jdmar]

Welcome Boduke,

That was good advice about flushing the cooling system to keep it operating well. Also clean your "prescreen" that sits in front of the radiator (if yours still has one!) and also clean your radiator fins.

But DO NOT pressure wash the radiator fins!!!!!!!! That would be more likely to hurt than to help. Just rinse with water gently to get the heavy stuff out then spray with something non-damaging like Simple Green to help loosen old dirt/dust grease. Repeat the rinse.

You can also add near pure distilled H2O in the summer for better convection current. The more antifreeze you have the less easily your coolant circulates. Just be sure to drain fully or to drain and add antifreeze in the winter to avoid a "blowout" from freezing...that would make for a bad day!

Also often these small diesels run cooler if run at higher (not lower) RPM. If you are loading the engine (ground engaging implement, etc) they can get hot if the RPM is low and the load is high. Often shifting to a lower gear helps. Both the engine "works less hard" and it has more airflow since the fan is turning faster.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Peter

 

[boduke_43235]

Peter/Jim-

Both great advice. Thanks for your input. I am definitely learning as I go here. I havn't drained the anti-freeze yet but I'm sure that will help. I have been running my implements in 3rd gear. Thanks again.

 

[boduke_43235]

Jim/Peter/Visitors-

Also-My charging system is definitely marginal. My battery is brand new & it just seems to be drained every time I run it. Is there a fix here? I've checked all of the hard wiring and it looks to be in good shape. Where should I check first for the fix? Thanks, Scott.

 

[Tractors4u]

It sounds like the voltage regulator might be bad. It is metal box located under the dash.

 

[Soundguy]

Grab your voltmeter.. time for a check. Check votlage at the battery befroe starting.. then after starting.. should see something like 12.5 before.. and 13 (or preferably 13.3-14.7) after.. if not.. start looking.

Soundguy