RK 25 PTO Electrical short

[BryceSteiner]

anyone have it where the PTO switch blows fuses? I believe it's the solenoid in the transmission. If it's not connected the fuse does not blow, leading me to think it's not a short in the wiring because I would think it would still fry.
Thoughts?

 

[Roadworthy]

That sounds like a valid assessment. Is it possible to remove the solenoid without taking the tractor apart? You could disconnect the wires going to the solenoid and see if either is shorted to ground or if either terminal of the solenoid itself is shorted to ground. You'll probably read a very low resistance across the solenoid coil itself but it should not read a short. The amperage of the fuse in the circuit should give you an idea of the expected resistance. For example if it's a ten amp fuse I would expect the solenoid in operation to pull about five amps as circuits are frequently fused at about twice the operating current. That combination would give an expected coil resistance of the solenoid at about 2.4 ohms, that's twelve volts divided by five amps. That should give you a starting point on further troubleshooting.

 

[circled]

anyone have it where the PTO switch blows fuses? I believe it's the solenoid in the transmission. If it's not connected the fuse does not blow, leading me to think it's not a short in the wiring because I would think it would still fry.
Thoughts?

I had an electrical issue with my RK24. One of the main fuses, up by the battery kept failing. It turns out poor routing of electrical harness allowed one wire to contact hot enough spot to melt it and expose wire, thus the short. Replaced and rerouted harness, no problem since. Before you go after the solenoid I'd trace the wire, may save you some time and money. Good Luck.

 

[BryceSteiner]

I had an electrical issue with my RK24. One of the main fuses, up by the battery kept failing. It turns out poor routing of electrical harness allowed one wire to contact hot enough spot to melt it and expose wire, thus the short. Replaced and rerouted harness, no problem since. Before you go after the solenoid I'd trace the wire, may save you some time and money. Good Luck.

did you fix it yourself or did RK send someone out? RK store told me they don't work on electrical at the stores.
If so, how did you take the steering wheel off? Was it a bolt and an allen wrench or something else?

 

[circled]

did you fix it yourself or did RK send someone out? RK store told me they don't work on electrical at the stores.
If so, how did you take the steering wheel off? Was it a bolt and an allen wrench or something else?

Sorry for the delay, was at county fair! I found and insulated the wire myself. I was in contact with RK, they had me trouble shoot. A couple months later it happened again, called RK and they sent a tech out and he replaced the harness under the hood, above the relays and re-routed the new harness. Took him 5 minutes. He drove 4 hrs here and 4 hrs back? No charge. I had tractor for about 2 years and about 150 hrs if memory serves me right. Mine was a 40 Amp main fuse. The insulated wire was melting near the injector lines. I didn't have to remove the steering wheel. The plastic cover under the steering wheel is just 5 screws. I did recently remove that to remove the floorboard hump cover to do some work.

 

[BryceSteiner]

I'm sorry for the delay!
I just got back to testing it. I found something interesting. I had two bolts missing at the PTO shaft that had the held the cover on. I got new bolts and put them back on (without the cover) and then decided to test the PTO and surprisingly it worked! I stopped it and put a 5 amp fuse in (I had a 5 am breaker in). I turned it on and it worked - for 5 seconds. Then it stopped. I checked the fuse and it had blown.

So I guess it was not the bolts. I thought it might be and I might be good. I took the covers off around the steering column and coulnd't find anything that looked worn, burned, or anything else, for the blue/white stripe wire, and the green/black stripe wire.

I did a little more testing. I think there is a dead short in the PTO solenoid. Here's why: I ran a test light on just the solenoid - it made the light turn on. I then decided to use the ohm meter on it and it only went to .01 to .02 - making me think it is not retracting successfully.

Any thoughts?