CK 20 Won't Start!

[aosbill]

Talked with my dealer just now. Pulled the connector under the running board of the tractor and it is fine. No burnt pins. So now I am checking ALL the connectors. The two connectors coming straight out of the fuse holder both have a pin that is completely burnt off. So this is the quality of the Korean tractor. After five years you need to replace the wiring harness because the connectors are real junk. Will talk to my dealer tomorrow and see if he can replace that harness for me. Gonna cost some money though that I'm not too happy about.

 

[jake98]

So to continue the 'quality' part of the conversation, have you had other breakdowns in the five years? I'm a new Kioti owner with a couple problems with it, but the machine seems like it's really well made. Except it broke again, electrical this time, but when the injector pump malfunctioned it over-reved until I shut the fuel off. Had my heart pumping...
Jake

 

[intel]

there might be a reason they burnt be sure the right amp fuses are installed. if anything go lower just a bit.

 

[irwin]

The two connectors coming straight out of the fuse holder both have a pin that is completely burnt off. .

Good you finally found it. Forget the poor me's, this is a straight forward problem. Fix it and get back in the seat.

If I was looking to save money I'd do a repair myself. If this is something that can be by-passed ..do that, you can always replace the harness later.

Glad the mystery is over...good luck with the fix.......

 

[aosbill]

Take that back. I THOUGHT there was a burnt pin on the connector coming from the fuse box but as it turns out there is no wire connection for that pin. So had the dealer send his man out to look at this thing. He brought a new fuse box, wiring harness, and ignition switch. We swapped out the fuse holder first. Still no dash lights or anything. Switched out the brand new ignition switch with his brand new ignition switch and still nothing. No lights on the dash just completely dead. Flashers and turn signals still work but that is it. So it's got to go to the shop because it looks like the only way to diagnose this problem is to pull the steering wheel and the shroud with the dash in tack. I have a Sims cab on it so that will have to come off. I do not have a very fuzzy feeling about this tractor at this point. The front loader needed a field kit installed on it and then the tredle pedal needed to be fixed, requiring the tractor be split in half. And now even the dealer doesn't know what the heck is wrong with this thing. I'm sure after several hundred dollars in shop labor and some hefty pickup and delivery charge this thing is going to cost me hundreds of dollars to get repaired. For a tractor that only has 130 hours on it and never got any sort of heavy duty use, I am very, very, disappointed with this machine. If Kioti doesn't help me out on this repair I will seriously consider selling this and getting something else that has a good track record. I just don't understand how a tractor sitting idle doing nothing for a few months, all of a sudden the electrical system fails.

 

[aosbill]

To continue. The dealer called me this morning and we checked a few other things. First, pulled the +side of the battery cable from the battery. Put an meter from the battery end connector to the starter relay connector. Good connection. Unscrewed both nuts on the starter solenoid and removed them. Wire brushed and sandpapered all connections. From the wiring harness that comes off of the starter solenoid I pulled the connector that leads to the rear of the tractor. This connector has two big red wires that comes from the front of the tractor's harness. One wire has 12 volts the other has 0 volts. I'm assuming, and I could be wrong, one wire supplies 12v to the starter solenoid and the other must supply 12v to the ignition switch. According to the schematic in the manual, both these wires should have 12v supplied to them. So the only alternative to this problem is the wiring harness from the left side of the tractor must be kaput. Dealer will pick up on Monday and hopefully we'll have an answer by early next week.

 

[P.L.]

I'm with you, my tractor has has more problems in four years than any of my equipment thats two times as old and has twice as many hour. At 200hrs my engine blew up leaving to fist size holes the the block. I've had to replace the ignition switch twice, the loader control lever once and now I have some big piece of junk bolted on my loader. Basically I feel like if I don't get rid of my tractor something else is going to happen to it and at this point I real don't care to fix anything else on a virtually new tractor. You get what you pay for.

 

[malk315]

Hi Aosbill-

I had a similar problem with my machine (about 165 hours now CK20) where my hazard lights were intermittent. A lot of tracing with voltmeter etc. I isolated it to the main harness connector below the parking brake / cruise control levers. It's the one with the most wires in it and the small pins in there are indeed lousey. I had corrosion for a couple small pins that were related to hazard lights and some on one of the bigger spades in that connector. I cleaned the best I could and filled with di-electric grease.

The problem is the hazards are intermittent again, so I'll need a new harness -- I also want to prevent any additional problems with the bigger spade that is getting corroded. I don't know what that wire does (I have shop manual and could find out), but if it's for glow plug relay or some other vital component I don't want to end up stuck down the road.

I was the one who posted pictures of the fuse block -- if anyone searches for posts by me, you'll find it.

Question for you: What dealer did you use who actually brought out another harness and other spare parts to try and get you going? I think that's fantastic that the dealer you used did that. My former dealer dropped Kioti -- I heard him complaining the new england rep from Kioti was annoying and wanted them to stock more tractors than they were willing or something to that effect. This would be Harvard Power Equipment in Harvard, MA.

I'd like to try going to your dealer for my next service and harness changeout potentially -- especially since you are in Massachusetts.

On the edge of my seat to find out the resolution for your machine.

 

[aosbill]

Okay, here is the real deal. Apparently Kioti supposes everyone will garage these tractors because their wiring harnesses are not designed for inclement weather like we get here in New England. My dealer found that the wiring harness on the right side of the tractor coming from the battery leading up into the tractor's fuse box and then from the fuse block to the control panel of the tractor was defective. Apparently when Kioti manufactures these wiring harnesses they use a split loom tubing that they run the wires through. The split on the loom of these wiring harnesses was facing up. So when snow and rain entered the split loom, it stayed in there and froze and thawed and froze and thawed. It also leaked into the connectors and corroded all the connections. The replacement wiring harness came through all taped up. So Kioti is aware of this problem it seems else why would the new wiring harness be all taped up? So if you don't want any electrical problems with a Kioti tractor, may I suggest you find a nice warm place in the sumertime, remove all the wiring harnesses that you can find, and tape them up from head to toe and then use dielectric grease in all the connectors. Something that Kioti should already be doing. It is just common sense to anyone "other than Kioti engineers" that these little tractors are exposed to the worse kind of environment possible and they should be built to take it. My brother bought a Kubota the same time I bought my Kioti, and he has many more hours on his tractor than I have and hasn't had an iota of a problem with it. So you know what my next tractor will be. His tractor also sits outside in the weather. To answer your question, my tractor is being taken care of by the dealer that I purchased it from- Ken's Tractor Truck in Troy N.H. If you want the phone number let me know and I'll send it to you in an email. Just leave a link to your e-mail here and I'll send you the information.

 

[natem]

Thanks for the tip on the di-grease, and tape. Cant wait to check mine tomorow, I can only imagine what I will find because it sat out side all summer, and is out now in the rain tonight.