Ford 3415 electrical issue

[double hunter]

Just got this 3415,,tractor runs and operates great,,seller sez he had trbl starting and was pulling it off when I went to look at it,,i carried a battery and jumper cables and it fired right,,when i got it home I noticed the glow plug indicator was not warmig up,,pulled it and sure enuff the little coil is open, got one in today,,connected it up and it glows bright red immediately if not sooner,,also the wire from the starter to fuse that goes to the switch had a melt down,,looks like I got dead short somewhere in the glow plug circuit,,,,tractor cranks great without it but its not going to always be 80 degrees,,is there a component in this circuit that can go bad,,will the glow plugs themselves short out,,I had thought about going straight from the battery thru a fuse and to the glow plugs to see if they were causing the problem, any help appreciated

 

[radios1]

"the wire from the starter to fuse that goes to the switch had a melt down" that could easily destroy the switch, check that!.

 

[RickB]

1. Dead short in one or more glow plugs, yes they can.
2. Metal or other conductive material shorting the glow plug buss bar to the engine.
3. Glow plug feed wire shorted to ground.

 

[double hunter]

I did a visual and and traced the wires, and do not see anything obvious,,switch appears to be ok, getting voltage to the glow plug indicator, i have the glow plug indicator out of the circuit and the wires taped off,,my volt/ohm meter is on the blink,,if the glow plugs are shorted would i be able to take a test pic and go from the battery to bus bar,,would there be current flow,,just a thought, I guess I could disc the glow plugs one by one and determine if one has a short ,,tractor cranks great without them..

 

[radios1]

the glow plug circuit should be fused, unless that was bypassed, which causes damage.. you can replace the fuse with a self-resetting circuit breaker, like they use on car and truck headlights, which will allow you more opportunities to diagnose the short!..

 

[RickB]

The glow plug circuit is protected by the accessory power fusible link. If this fuse link is open there will be no dash lights, instrumentation, headlamps, warning flashers, etc. the link is a 3 long red wire attached to the starter solenoid with the positive battery cable. A white plastic connector attaches the link to the chassis wiring harness.

A faulty ignition switch is a less likely cause of your symptoms.