Intermittent starting issues.

[YLee Kioti]

So here we go.

In Dec. parked it for lunch and upon return to work no start. Take battery to NAPA and get a 690 CCA battery.
Works good for about two months then a no start. Use battery charger and test alternator, check good. Did adjust belt tension.
Battery charging at 14.6 vDC.
In April same no start. Noticed ground clamp loose and had no adjustment left. Replaced with Marine grade battery clamp. Seemed to work well up until today.

Battery charger is at 1.8 amps. Jumped starter solenoid with son sitting in seat. Starter spins but no engage to start engine.
Brake applied can hear relay close. HST in neutral, PTO off.
Noticed green CAL light illuminates for one second. First time noticed that.

OK, now this morning I replaced the positive terminal with a Marine grade also.
Went to start (brakes were in locked position) and nothing. Disengaged brakes. Cycled again and WAT's dat nose?????....:shocked::laughing:

So traced linkage but lost track of where that switch could be.
Sorry for the literature essay. So my two quesitons are:

Where is the 'Brake" switch located" for the NX? I hope it is not a parasitic load, causing frequent charging...???

Next this is the second event requiring a quality (read cheap ok. under 200 bucks be swell) battery/alternator tester.

After three days on son's Infiniti G37x and now this, need a better tool then a Fluke Meter.
O'Reilly's uses the Auto Meter BVA-230 a mere $$$$$..1K for it


So you gear heads out there, what would be your recos?
OK done for now adios....Ya'll.......

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I've been annoyed by a similar issue that has been spiked by mouse issues, and at one point a failed alternator where one-third of the windings didn't work, so it charged at low rpm, but not at high rpm.

I have not found a baseline parasitic milliamp spec on the cabbed NX series, but with a JVC KX310BT radio installed, I have a parasitic load of 40 milliamps (0.04 on the milliamp scale on your multimeter). With the radio disconnected, I'd have less of a load but I don't know what that milliamp base is.

If I remember right, the brake switch is a pilunger-type located atop the pivot of the brake pedal. My brake switch gets stuck from time to time from non-use and needs to be exercised a bit before functioning.

The brake light switch and brake safety switches are on pages 12-85-86 of the service manual.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Keep the Fluke and learn to use it.
Hope it has a 10 or 20 amp scale.
Get a $30 battery load tester if you feel motivated in that direction.

FWIW, owning Flukes, OTC, and Tectronics meters and scopes for auto diagnostics, this little AstroAI meter for one-tenth the price does the same basic jobs without the graphic functions. And it comes with a magnet so you can hang it from everything which is a feature I didn't know I was missing until I had it.

 

[Dave M7040]

Any time I hear "Starter Spins but does not engage," I am inclined to think the wrong terminals are being jumped.

This is a common occurrence by those who are not using this technique all the time..

Study attached marked up photo and try again.

Dave M7040

 

[justman777]

Hey YLee! If the battery has enough juice to spin the starter (whether it's engaging the flywheel or not) by crossing the terminals, it should have enough juice to do the same thing when you turn the key. I suspect you have a safety switch issue (seat, brake, neutral, etc.) vs. a battery issue.

 

[kthompson]

Some starters have to spin rather fast to engage so a low amp supply might do a slow spin but not engage. You mention the batter clamps but what about the ground to the tractor itself. Have you check to see if the post or the clamps on the battery are glazing over? Had that issue for with one tractor with one battery and it happened more than once.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Some starters have to spin rather fast to engage so a low amp supply might do a slow spin but not engage. You mention the batter clamps but what about the ground to the tractor itself. Have you check to see if the post or the clamps on the battery are glazing over? Had that issue for with one tractor with one battery and it happened more than once.

True, that. If we assume some sort of battery, weak starter issue, the OP should:

Then check the body ground and battery posts.
Check Battery condition (I'm on my third battery in five years on my NX series).

If the OP is boosting with an external charger and properly jumping the starter (I use a remote starter tool that has an LED that lights up when properly connected) and just the starter spins without the bendix kicking,

Then the OP either has a weak Bendix, or weak starter. In either case, Kioti will sell the whole starter unless the OP has a rebuilder around the corner.

 

[YLee Kioti]

FWIW, owning Flukes, OTC, and Tectronics meters and scopes for auto diagnostics, this little AstroAI meter for one-tenth the price does the same basic jobs without the graphic functions. And it comes with a magnet so you can hang it from everything which is a feature I didn't know I was missing until I had it.

Thanks pretty much what I was looking for......I'll dig into it.

And thanks for the images to locate the switch.......yeah the fact that I have to cycle the brake pedal on occasion to get the start can be annoying. may have to consider replacing.

 

[YLee Kioti]

Some starters have to spin rather fast to engage so a low amp supply might do a slow spin but not engage. You mention the batter clamps but what about the ground to the tractor itself. Have you check to see if the post or the clamps on the battery are glazing over? Had that issue for with one tractor with one battery and it happened more than once.

Yes, the positive terminal clamp was replaced with a marine grade. Tractor did start, after the parking brake was released then pushed down again.

So thinking safety switch is hokey and should replace.
Both battery post were cleaned up with scotch brite when the new terminals were replaced.
Will crawl back down and trace neg. cable to frame ground and make sure that puppy is clean and solid.
Did forget about that one, so thanks for the reminder.

 

[YLee Kioti]

Hey YLee! If the battery has enough juice to spin the starter (whether it's engaging the flywheel or not) by crossing the terminals, it should have enough juice to do the same thing when you turn the key. I suspect you have a safety switch issue (seat, brake, neutral, etc.) vs. a battery issue.

Yup....the charger was only showing 1.8 amps , but let it charge while eating supper.
Dang if it didn't fire right up when the charger shut down showing full.

The fact that is seems to be so danged sensitive to such a very slight low charge has me puzzled.
But have replaced the positive terminal now and tested it.
Cranked right up, after cycling brake pedal twice. Heh, go figure.....
So makes me suspect brake switch is source of parasitic loss?
Hm will observe performance this coming week. Gotta install the Rhino canopy.

I'll break meter out and check out the brake safety switch.