2555 starting scare

[jmh1783]

A few weeks ago we had a week of rain followed by freezing weather. A week ago I went out to start the tractor to clean snow off my driveway. It wouldn't start. The engine barely turned over. I tried a few times and the power kicked out completely. No dash lights. I got out a charger and a very long extension cord and let it charge. When I put the charger on, it said 66%. That seemed suspicous but I let it charge.

A returned a few hours later and gave it a go. It turned over a little better but it still sounded like a dead battery. It shouldn't be I only have 175 hours on the tractor. I turned the key to off and was surprised that the gauges didn't go off. I got a strange ticking sound from under the dash. The tachometer moved erradically and the fuel gauge didn't return to E. I cranked it again and after about two turns it cut out and went dead. I played with this several times and finally got it to crank enough to start. It ran fine.

I warmed it up, cleared the snow and moved it into the barn. I think there must have been water in one of the contacts somewhere under the dash to have caused a short. I got out a space heater and heated up the barn the following day for a few hours. I did it again the next day and tried to start it. No problem. It turned over readily and started immediately.

I decided to go looking so I took off the dash to see if I could see any connections that might be vulnerable to water intrusion. There are a couple facing upwards. Nothing jumped out at me. I suppose the problem could be under the hood. I didn't look there. I really need to remove the loader to do that. Any thoughts? I'm thinking I should apply some dialectric grease to all the contacts.

 

[ovrszd]

Is your dash a pod of gauges that could be powered by a printed circuit? Or is it old school individual gauges?

Today's electronic circuitry is very picky about the voltage applied and especially picky about a good ground. I suspect a weak connection somewhere.

Also on today's electronic machinery there is usually a constant power drain. Not uncommon to find a stored machine with a low battery. Good friend of mine is a car salesman, working for a dealer with 200+ new units on the lot. He says it's very common that 10% won't start on any given day.

If I unplugged a connection looking for the problem and it wasn't already packed with dielectric grease I would add some.

 

[jmh1783]

I'll go looking for weak connections. Honestly I'm not sure about the gauges. I wasn't looking that closely. I do know what you are talking about constant drain. Subaru seems to have a problem with this. You can't leave a Subaru sitting to long or it will drain the battery. The first time I went looking to buy one (middle of winter), the dealer had to jump 2 of the 3 cars I test drove. Btw, none of the connections I looked at had grease in them.

 

[ovrszd]

I'll go looking for weak connections. Honestly I'm not sure about the gauges. I wasn't looking that closely. I do know what you are talking about constant drain. Subaru seems to have a problem with this. You can't leave a Subaru sitting to long or it will drain the battery. The first time I went looking to buy one (middle of winter), the dealer had to jump 2 of the 3 cars I test drove. Btw, none of the connections I looked at had grease in them.

Somewhere there should also be a common ground terminal for different circuits. Might be a 1/4" stud with several small wires with loop ends fastened to it with a nut/washer. If you find something like that loosen it and retighten to ensure a good connection.

If your gauges are all under one glass lens enclosed in one plastic pod they are probably circuitry gauges. There will be on multi wire plug on the back of the pod. Check that connection.