lost power to my dash gauges

[MississippiMan]

dash went dead on my 5525. the fuses are good, at least the ones i know about which are below and to the left of the steering wheel. last time i used it everything was fine, today, no dash gauges.

anyone have a clue where i should start looking to resolve this.?

 

[TedLaRue]

In the absence of other more knowledgable replies, I'll venture a guess.

Does anything else electrical work?

Suddenly not working electrically could result from rodents damaging the wiring.

Tractors (and cars) often have a "fusible link" in the wire from the battery to the rest of the system (not the heavy wire to the starter). This link behaves like a fuse but doesn't look like a fuse. To check for it, follow the wires from the battery to whereever they go. A fusible link would probably be a short section of wire with a connector on each end.

If it does turn out to be the fusible link, the next big question is "Why did it blow?".

 

[MississippiMan]

thanks ted. yes everything works, even the dash lights. but the gauges are dead. i'll check for the fusable link you mentioned. thanks for the tip.

i had one of those days when nothing seemed to work. my lawnmower died, then i had to jump off my tractor, then the gauges wouldn't work. i knew the tractor was low on fuel so i dared not run it long.

 

[coffeeman]

thanks ted. yes everything works, even the dash lights. but the gauges are dead. i'll check for the fusable link you mentioned. thanks for the tip.

i .

How about ground. Maybe the ground is linked through the gauges only. One gauge goes dead and the rest do too. Easily check by picking up one ground and jump to a known good ground, the battery. The same can be done for th hot side.

Of course you could also use a meter. However, if your like me I gotta first use tin foil in the fuse box and break out the 20 volt screw driver.

Cheers....Coffeeman

 

[MississippiMan]

guess i'll have to pull the dash next and check for mice, wasp, grounds etc. it would be nice to know how much fuel i have.

 

[RedRiver]

it would be nice to know how much fuel i have.

insert a clean yardstick into the fuel tank....should give you a rough idea of how much fuel you have until the issue is resolved.

are all the gauges not working (tach, hourmeter, volts, fuel, temp)?

 

[flusher]

thanks ted. yes everything works, even the dash lights. but the gauges are dead. i'll check for the fusable link you mentioned. thanks for the tip.

i had one of those days when nothing seemed to work. my lawnmower died, then i had to jump off my tractor, then the gauges wouldn't work. i knew the tractor was low on fuel so i dared not run it long.

Interesting. I bought a new Mahindra 5525 last March. The operator manual has a wiring diagram, but like a lot of automotive diagrams, the instrument cluster is shown as a box with a few wires attached. No details of the internal wiring to the gauges.

Do the dial gauges work (tach, fuel gauge, temp gauge)? On my 5525 the oil pressure and battery displays are just idiot lights, not dial gauges.

 

[MississippiMan]

all of the dial gauges are not working. turn signals, headlights, horn etc all work. tractor runs fine. i am 40 miles from a dealer and i don't have a trailer anyway. hoping i could fix it myself.

 

[TedLaRue]

The circuits for dial gauges usually involve some kind of sensor and either a voltage or amperage needle-type gauge.

Power from the battery either
(A) goes to the gauges first, then to the sensors and then to ground, OR
(B) to the sensors, then to the gauges, and then to ground.

If (A), there's probably a common supply wire from the battery which supplies all of the gauges, probably through a fuse.

If (B), there's probably a common ground for all of the gauges.

If your gauges are wired as in (A), then you may have a bad ground somewhere. If they're wired as in (B), then you may have a blown fuse or bad connection to the dashboard circuit board.

It's probably more likely that a ground went bad, than a supply wire.

This is probably easy to fix if you can find the problem. Start at the dashboard circuit-board/instrument-cluster-box and start back-tracing the wires that are attached to it. The wires may be bundled and taped together, making that difficult.

Maybe flusher can provide some information about the colors of wires running from the instrument cluster to 12V or to ground.

 

[RedRiver]

Contact your dealer and see if you may be able to pull out your instrument cluster and either mail it or drop it by and see if they can install it on a unit on their lot and see if it does the same thing. This would be a lot easier and you should be able to tell if it's something internal on the instrument cluster or not. Regardless, if it's under a year old (which is assume it is since it's a 5525) it should be covered under warranty.