2004 mf 461 electrical glitches

[mf40diesel]

Hello all,

Been trying to get the electrical system squared away on my tractor... Need some advice. First of all, relatively new to me machine, instrument cluster just replaced prior to my purchase, allegedly the machine has about 1000 hrs..

On the cluster some idiot lights seem to work, at least they light up when the tractor is started, then go out.. But, the temp gauge doesn't, the 4wd light doesn't, the steering blockage light is always lit(oil and filter new) and the pto engagement light is always lit too.

This all started really cause I want the temp gauge to work. Have now replaced the sending unit twice... No luck. What's worse is that the unit I have is two wire, and my manual shows only a one wire, strange right? Of the two wires, one is the signal wire, grounding it to the block pegs the gauge, the other wire is hot, and gets 12 volts, when on, 13.7 or something when running.

I have checked the battery ground, and the common ground I believe for the harness, it was a little sh1tty but was and is good.

At my wit's end, I really want all these indicators working. A new harness from massey is $500, which really doesn't seem too steep for what you get, but then again shouldn't really be necessary.

I might add, when the dealer or whomever changed the cluster, they cut all of the lighting wiring, to make removal of the panel easier, which I haven't fixed, but I can't see how that could effect it.

Thinking about bringing it to a local guy that has a tractor shop, retired john deere mechanic. Cause I'm lost.

Any thoughts? Thanks so much.

 

[mf40diesel]

So, for anyone that might be interested. finally I figured it out.
with regards to the temp guage, the manual was right, the wiring was slightly confusing. Looking back, I can't imagine how I didn't see it, and feel a little silly. So if you recall, I said that it had two sending units, one with one prong, one with two. Well, the wiring was the misleading part... There is a single wire, when found, it ran from the single prong to the injection pump, seems obvious enough. Then there was a two wire pair, run together in the loom, back to the harness, they were plugged into the two prong sending unit. Also seemingly obvious enough. One of those wires was live (12 volts) the other was the signal wire, which checked out good. After pulling the dash apart numerous times, looking, checking continuity... etc, and even saying to myself... jeeze it just seems like the signal wire should be plugged to a one prong sending unit. It dawned on me to do so... low and behold the gauge came to life.

I also got the headlight working (hi and low) and one side of the flashers, and one of the red rear lights. I still need to get the rear work light.

Who knew.

now I need to replace the head gasket, thermostat and likely deck the head. ****

 

[masseyrider]

I had a 461 with zero problems when I traded at 2000hrs. Yours must have come from an abusive home. Head gasket and all the other problems, geez. They are good when running though. Nice weight to HP.