2025R will not crank

[RalphVa]

Battery is good at 12.5 volts on the posts. Lots of corrosion on the connections. Had bought some cleaner and protectant for that but decided not to touch the posts because it being an old (original 2015 or 2015 gen. 1) one that I might cause more harm in working on the posts.

Seems as though one of the safety switches or starter solenoid is not working. I've worked the L-N-H lever and the PTO button and raised and lowered the seat.

Working on cleaning up the posts now. Those tiny bolts are surely hard to get a wrench onto. Appear to be 3/8 inch.

Any ideas?

 

[grsthegreat]

place the tester on battery posts and have someone crank over the tractor. see if anything happens to the voltage. if nothing changes, could be a sefety switch or bad ground connections.

i have batteries showing 12.8 volts resting, but drop to 8 volts as soon as you turn over key.

 

[jsb2b]

Use jumper cables and see if it cranks. My old 2305's positive cable corroded inside the insulation and the cheap end was half rotted through. I had to put a new end on it. Another time, the negative cable had a rusted connection to the frame. Sandpaper fixed that. Finally the battery died. 2015 and the original battery??? You may be due for the $100.00+ new battery shock!!!

 

[Roadworthy]

All the above advice is good. Your battery terminal bolts may be metric given that many of John Deere's smaller tractors have a lot of Yanmar parts. For pulling connectors off batteries I've found a puller to be a handy tool to have, as well as a battery terminal cleaner. Try your local auto parts store. I don't use any cleaner sprays on my batteries. Clean up is a baking soda and water solution. A thin film of silicone grease helps inhibit corrosion after I'm done.

 

[DanMc77]

I've been picking up used batteries at auto salvage yards for a number of years. They usually have the little sticker with the month/year. A battery that's less than 2 years old for $35? I've never had to replace one. The cars usually die first.

 

[RoostersGarage]

You'd be surprised at how much the cranking is affected by the corrosion on the battery terminals. I've used NoCo spray and liquid for years, then swapped to the NoCo felt washers that sit under the terminal to prevent corrosion. Baking soda/water has always cleaned up any corrosion that was on there before I owned the thing. Once the terminals are clean, see if your cranking results are different. But as batteries age, they might still show a pretty decent charge with no load, but put any load on them at all and the voltage drops. I just recently had to replace Optima batteries in my truck because they couldn't hardly trip the solenoid even though at rest they showed 12.3 and 12.5. I put the volt meter on Min/Max to catch the low and when I tried to crank they'd drop to 7-8 volts.

 

[grsthegreat]

I use noco (NCP2) paste on the batteries I install on generators. After 5 years terminals always look new. Krylon makes a great spray battery cleaner. I use it on units that have not been serviced regularly. Cleans batteries up nicely.

 

[RalphVa]

Gotta be the battery cables. I treated them a couple times with PB blaster and knocked away some of the corrosion. After lunch, I decided to try it. Fired right up.

Ordered new cables from JD but they have no idea how long it will take to get them. Might be able to cut the bolts with my Dremel.

I've some battery cleaner I bought from my favorite Central Battery place where I'll buy a new battery. This one at 6 is on borrowed time.

 

[grsthegreat]

You don’t have to use jd cables. They sell these online cut to length with whatever ends you want. Also napa and other auto parts stores sell them. Depends on length

 

[RalphVa]

Might be able to take to my favorite battery place with the cables fully on and have them remove them from the battery if my Dremel won't work on the bolts or nuts.