GC1720 died, won't restart

[Fiziksgeek]

Well, putting lots of hours on my machine (for me anyway). Need to do the 50 hour service soon, but ran into a problem today. I was doing some light loader work as we reshape some planting beds in the yard. I had just dropped a load of stuff off in the compost heap and was returning to the house and the tractor died and won't restart.

It was running just fine, temp was fine, no warnings. I put it into neutral and tried to restart, nothing. Opened the hood and checked fuses, don't see any blown. Manually toggled the seat switch, no results. flipped the pto handle a couple times on and off, nothing. Doesn't turn over at all, just quiet.

The only thing I noticed is that when I turn the key to activate the glow plugs, the dash light indicated the glow plugs are on, but the fuel and temp gauge don't move at all. She was warm since I had just been running around, and I have about 3/4 of a tank of diesel, so I expected those gauge to move up to indicate the current status, but the needles didn't move.

Any ideas?

 

[Toddao]

Pull all fuses, inspect, , swap out with known good ones, I had same issue , Blowne fuse, but it looked good. You could try jumping at starter solenoid , this is a dangerous way, thought. Check your battery ground

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[Fiziksgeek]

Spent a hour or so looking things over this morning with no luck. Felt like the negative connection to the battery was a bit lose, so I took it off, cleaned it up, and reconnected.

Played with the pedals an handles. Nothing.

I had a starting problem in the fall about my GC2400. I ended up trading to get the backhoe , but if I recall, the dealer said it was a malfunctioning seat switch. I never had the tractor shut off once running, it would just not start on occasion.

If I recall from my last experience, about 15 seconds after the key goes form start to off, there should be a click. I don't hear that this time.

The tractor died after the dealer was closed on Sat. Will give em a call Monday morning when the open back up.

 

[Toddao]

Check the ground cable where it goes to the frame, that has been an issue the the past

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[Ooklaa]

Pull all fuses, inspect, , swap out with known good ones, I had same issue , Blowne fuse, but it looked good. You could try jumping at starter solenoid , this is a dangerous way, thought. Check your battery ground

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What fuse are you talking about? I know sometimes if my transmission lever is not exactly in the middle (neutral)between turtle and rabbit it won't start. I mean just slightly forward or backward.

 

[Fiziksgeek]

Check the ground cable where it goes to the frame, that has been an issue the the past

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Where exactly is this? I see a cable that goes over the back of the battery and down toward the frame, but the connection looks to be under the floor board or something. the MMM is on, so it hard to get under there to look.

What fuse are you talking about? I know sometimes if my transmission lever is not exactly in the middle (neutral)between turtle and rabbit it won't start. I mean just slightly forward or backward.

First thing I did was toggle all the levers and pedals. Will calls Goffs in the morning...

 

[Toddao]

On my cg2410. Fuse block under hood, should be visible,
Follow ground cable from battery it will mount to the frame at some point, inspect that connection, and the wire end terminal where it is crimped

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[irvingj]

When my ground cable broke, other electric things worked, but the starter wouldn't crank; sounds like your problem might be different.

On my 2310, the ground cable is located beneath the painted trim on the front. It goes from the side frame rail over to the engine block, and you should be able to see it just looking from the side.

On 2300s, that ground cable was a bit too short, and the natural vibration of the diesel engine "worked it," breaking strands in the cable one by one. Eventually, the last few broke. I thought the factory had fixed that (with a slightly longer cable) in later models.

 

[AxleHub]

Fitzgeek,

The first thing to recognize ffom your original post is the tractor was running and it died. That's meaningful because it eliminates the starter and starting circuit.

1st thing I'd check is battery charge condition. You also said you tried to start it and glow plug indicator showed but not gauges moving. I also assume there was no starter action.

Sounds to me like the battery is drained of power. Certainly a ground wire could be involved but I would think the engine would still have run until battery was near dead. Short in lights or a drain of electrical that charging circuit couldn't maintain.

 

[Snobdds]

The first thing on a diesel you check when it just dies is your fuel and air, followed by the fuel cut solenoid. Check the fuel and air filters for anything suspect. Then manually cycle the full cut solenoid.

Remember a mechanical diesel just needs three things to run...fuel, air and compression.