Jay4200
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2005
- Messages
- 2,053
- Location
- Hudson/Weare, NH
- Tractor
- L4200GST w/ LA680 & BX2200D w/ LA211
Thought I'd share this funny story:
Last week the glow-plug function stopped working (including no indicator light) on my BX2200. It wasn't really cold, about 40F, but the tractor *barely* started - took at least 30 seconds of cranking all together. No way it would ever start in the winter w/o glow plugs, so I had to fix it. I found a wiring diagram (thanks TBN) and saw that the glow plugs and indicator light are wired directly from the ignition switch, so I was hoping that a wire broke off the ignition or something to that effect. The PO had recently changed the ignition switch for that exact reason.
I stuck my head under the dash, and saw that the ignition switch harness interferes with the throttle lever (by design), such that the lever hits the harness when up in the 'idle' position. I pushed the harness to see if I could get a little clearance, and *POP* the back of the ignition switch came off, and chunks of metal and bitty springs clattered down onto the tractor floorboard. Crap. I hate when that happens.
The metal chunks were fairly beefy copper wipers, and the little black coil springs provided tension for the wipers. I removed the remaining pieces of the ignition assembly from the tractor, and by some miracle, I actually was able to find all 3 of the copper wipers and bitty springs. The assembly is held together by deforming the edge of the ignition housing into 3 small recesses in the rear plate - the factory evidently didn't press them down enough, because the rear plate popped out. I reassembled everything, mashed the housing into the plate recesses good and deep (this won't happen again, tell you that), then put it back into the tractor and connected the harness. Total elapsed time: maybe 15 minutes.
Not only did the ignition work, but my glow plug function was fixed too - apparently the back plate was hanging half out the week earlier, preventing the appropriate wiper from hitting the glow plug connection on the back plate. Dodged a bullet - if that fell apart while I was driving, there's no way I would have found all of the pieces.
Last week the glow-plug function stopped working (including no indicator light) on my BX2200. It wasn't really cold, about 40F, but the tractor *barely* started - took at least 30 seconds of cranking all together. No way it would ever start in the winter w/o glow plugs, so I had to fix it. I found a wiring diagram (thanks TBN) and saw that the glow plugs and indicator light are wired directly from the ignition switch, so I was hoping that a wire broke off the ignition or something to that effect. The PO had recently changed the ignition switch for that exact reason.
I stuck my head under the dash, and saw that the ignition switch harness interferes with the throttle lever (by design), such that the lever hits the harness when up in the 'idle' position. I pushed the harness to see if I could get a little clearance, and *POP* the back of the ignition switch came off, and chunks of metal and bitty springs clattered down onto the tractor floorboard. Crap. I hate when that happens.
The metal chunks were fairly beefy copper wipers, and the little black coil springs provided tension for the wipers. I removed the remaining pieces of the ignition assembly from the tractor, and by some miracle, I actually was able to find all 3 of the copper wipers and bitty springs. The assembly is held together by deforming the edge of the ignition housing into 3 small recesses in the rear plate - the factory evidently didn't press them down enough, because the rear plate popped out. I reassembled everything, mashed the housing into the plate recesses good and deep (this won't happen again, tell you that), then put it back into the tractor and connected the harness. Total elapsed time: maybe 15 minutes.
Not only did the ignition work, but my glow plug function was fixed too - apparently the back plate was hanging half out the week earlier, preventing the appropriate wiper from hitting the glow plug connection on the back plate. Dodged a bullet - if that fell apart while I was driving, there's no way I would have found all of the pieces.
