Good to hear it’s up and running! As post #2 indicates the cables are suspect. Mahindra cables seem to suck up the battery acid and corrode internally. They look fine but don’t work.
Some of the suggestions here have been sound while others simply don’t hold up in the shop/field. Testing voltage drop is like testing for symptoms instead of testing for the root cause. Voltage drop may be the result of increased resistance, normal resistance, poor battery condition, good battery condition and or a heavy load placed on the battery.... like starting!!!!
In a normal “healthy” electrical system you will see voltage drop when you use the starter (or any other load). This is normal!!!! In a lab, if you knew battery specs and condition, wire size, length, material and connections, along with the specs for the starter and solenoid and the friction in the engine you could calculate the theoretical voltage drop. But if you see the theoretical too much drop you are back to testing each component! And if you saw no drop......you are again testing each component. And, by the way, in the field, this voltage test needs two people- one to run the ignition switch and one to do the testing. So testing for, and seeing voltage drop is like saying- yep it works or nope it doesn’t work.
But on the other hand one person (without a second person) can check the resistance in Ohms (probably a 1/10th so of a ohm in this case) of the cables and connections. When you see one that has a 1/10th or more resistance you have a suspect cable. In your case (with new ends) it may read as an open circuit. It will be easy enough to check the resistance of the old and new cable- check it connected and on the bench to make sure it wasn’t in the connection.
So yes both methods will work. That said, I’m sure one can use those buttery soft hands, wearing a nicely pressed button up shirt that doesn’t quite fit like it did a decade ago and sit at the desk below the faded and framed piece of paper on the wall with a few signatures on it. From that desk one could pontificate about theory and what the book said. If one had posted that they had calculated the “normal” voltage drop that the tractor would see when starting, and then what would be considered bad it would be useful. But I guess it’s more useful to know how long the letters have been after the last name. For conversation, while we are sitting at this nice desk......If you had a controlled load, and no ohm meter you could test voltage- this would be another way to “solve” for Ohms Law. That’s the theory. But, in reality, a starter and battery isn’t controlled.
The tractor isn’t behind a desk and doesn’t give up answers to letters after a name or a piece of paper on the wall. One must actually go out and diagnose. A systematic approach is best but some experience also helps. I could tell you about my “experience” or one could read the suggestions in the thread. On one hand you have suggestions like checking cables (post 2) and to eliminate variables by using jumper cables to bypass the tractor’s starter circuit.
On the other hand you have flawed theory that is light on detail or hard numbers like- “this much voltage drop means this but that much voltage drop means that” Why no detail? The variables are too many and the component specs in the are relatively unknown- translation- it would be hard to know what voltage drop was normal and what drop was an issue. Then, once you noticed the drop you don’t know if you have a bad starter, battery, switch/solenoid or cable.
Seems the more one DEMANDS you know what they are the less you need what they say.
. I have to read the instruction manual every time I break out my ohm meter.