B7800 Engine Quits

[B7800]

Today after about 10 min of light working to change buckets I stood up and the engine on the B7800 quit dead. Tried to restart and while all the lights are correct the starter does nothing, no click and no engagement. After about 5 min of moving all the levers, pedals and blinkers & lights, it starts as normal.

Ten minutes later I again raise off the seat and the engine quits. I suspect the seat switch so I drive to the dealer to get a new one, but of course they have to order one for $6.00. On the way home with the old one I think maybe it isn't the switch and I check it out with a meter (continuity). It checks out fine so I put it back on and the rig starts up and I begin again. You guessed it, 10 minutes later it quits. Not having a shop manual I'm at a loss to know where to find what I guess to be a shorted wire or switch gone belly up.

I have ordered a shop manual over the net for $80.00 but it will take a week to get here. Any suggestions as to something I might try till then? Preheater light looks good, plenty of juice in the battery but the starter just does not engage. All fuses in the fuse box are good so I assume there is another switch in the electrical system that isn't closing for some reason.

Hope it's something real simple, even if it does make me look stupid. As a side issue, my gas gauge quit working about 10 hrs back but I didn't think it was a big deal. Could it be giving me a clue as to where I might start looking?

 

[Harvster]

I have a 7610 and the seat switch is designed to kill the engine when you stand up or fall off the tractor which is I suppose the real purpose. There are numerous kill switches and starter lockout switches that tend to be finicky. There have been a number of times when I have had to play with all the pedals and levers to restart. If it dies while you are driving along, or just sitting there in the seat than that is another matter.

 

[Fjord]

I havn't had my B7800 very long but the two circumstances I've noticed that will kill the engine if I'm not in the seat are i) if the PTO is engaged and ii) if the hydro pedal is depressed.I tried depressing the hydro pedal from the gound once with the range selector in neutral and it killed the engine. Good luck. Once you find out what it is you'll be the expert .

 

[tractorman]

The fact that your fuel gauge has quit makes me think that you may have some hitchhikers hiding out under your instrument cluster. Mice seem to like B7800 Tractors for some reason. Anyways, in order to check you have to pull out on the top of the instrument panel (it is clipped into the top of the plastic cowling). You will only be able to pull it out a litttle bit without disconnecting the tachometer drive cable, but there should be enough room for you to get a look inside. If needed, unscrew the tach cable, pull it out completely and clean it out. Look for a nest on top of the fuel tank on the left hand side and also look for some chewed up wires. Good luck and let us know!

 

[DAP]

Did you make sure a PTO (MID or REAR) lever wasn't accidently jostled to an engaged position?

 

[B7800]

Okay Guys, thanks for the info that got me to really think it out. I remembered that when it was working just before the engine quit the hydro-shuttle seemed sluggish and the tractor tended to creep ahead when I lifted off. Went to the owners manual and did some reading on the start/test procedures for a 50 hour check and see mention of the grease point on the shuttle. It is to be greased every 50 hours. Guess what, it has 60 hours on it and while I grease all the other fittings every 10 hours I've never greased that one. I didn't realize it was there underneath the step.

Long story short, I gave it a couple of healthy shots of lube, problem solved. Seems it was dragging enough that it was slightly out of the netrual position so any attempt to start, or lifting off the seat while running, resulted in a dead engine.

The bright side of being this stupid is that I now have a full shop manual coming in the mail which I didn't need but will have on the shelf for the future.