284 Instrument Panel Repairable??

[Ewal]

I have had some problems with the combination guage, hour meter,tach panel on my tractor. The hour meter stopped at 44hrs. My dealer gave me a replacement panel and this one had an hour meter that started slow and now seems almost accurate and an ammeter that works some times.
Has anyone made any attempts at opening one of these units up for repair? I like the panel layout. It is easy to keep track of the guages and the tach and hour meter are very visible as well as the light indicators on the left and right sides. Seems like repairs might be possible.
I could maybe follow knowledgable parties instruction if this has been done before. I have the first panel and the replacement and would like to see them work correctly.

 

[greg_g]

I suspect there is nothing wrong with either cluster, what you're describing can sounds almost certainly like ground wire problem(s). The hour meter is slaved to the tach, so one bad ground would necessarily affect both. The intermittent nature of your 2nd cluster problems also suggests a grounding issue.

In many cases these tractors are painted before they're wired. That necessarily means that circuit grounds are at a disadvantage before they're even connected. Unless Jinma has changed their wiring, black wires wearing a #41 label are all grounds. Locate them, grind/sand the paint off from under their connectors. See how many of your electrical problems go away after that.

P.S. Don't forget between the battery negative cable and the tractor frame.

//greg//

 

[SPIKER]

I agree with GregG pretty much 100%:

that being said the black #41 wire is not always ground: Mine are all green and is a 2002 tractor... single gauge non-cluster type.

I added ground wires to all of the gauge sets I had and also added ground straps from the engine block head side to the block side and to the bat grounding location on mine which was ON the steering collum. (strange location if you ask me but hey .. Now I added a fuel tank ground also tieing all the ground in and one back to the battery grounding location.

My tractor was a crate tractor so I had the benifit of assembeling all of it myself which made going about this pretty easy and a non-issue as well as a no brainer. I have had ONE gauge problem right off which was a oil press gauge. I had new gauge sent but put in a DIRRECT reading gauge inplace of the electrical one... much better in my oppinion...

OK now I haven't tried or seen one of the clusters but I wouldn't think replacing/repairing one would be hard...

mark M

 

[Ewal]

I will have to wait for warmer weather this coming spring to check the ground connections for the panel. It has been so wet this fall I have not had a chance to do much at all with the tractor. It sits covered with a tarp and in the next few weeks will be used to move snow from the yard I suspect.
Thanks for the input . I'll update when I have some results. I can operate with the panel as it is but , will want to make it better when I can.
Ewal