I am posting about a blown Main fuse. I was hoping for paint under the ground lug as this other fellow relates was his problem -- but mine was the main fuse.
Two days ago I bought a used 4025 Mahindra from the local dealer. Looks good and only 300 hours. Ran it with the shredder for 15 minutes with the lights on when I got it and then the next day shredded for 2 hours. Got stuck in the soft ground (I have to say I thought 4wd would get me out of there but....) and I cut off the motor and I then went and got my old tractor and a chain.... came out there and hooked it up. Then hit the key on the Mahindara 4025...Nothing. No cluster lights, no horn etc etc. It had just been running just 15 minutes before. After a couple hours in the field (not the best place to be troubleshooting) I Traced it to the blown main fuse. FYI on my 4025 it was behind a plate near my left foot and it was on a block with two relays. The fuse had a cover with a fan looking icon. It was a 30amp fuse and shaped like the regular double blade fuses, only bigger. But the schematic says should be a 40Amp and so I wonder why it is a 30Amp fuse? Maybe it blows periodically due to some other problem like an intermittent short... so maybe the previous owner thought it might be safer to put a 30 Amp fuse in?
I pulled the fuse and it was open, then I measured the resistance to ground on the load side of the fuse socket. It was infinite till I turned the key on and it went to 218 ohms. That's about a 6 amp load. That seems reasonable. Shouldn't blow again immediately when I replace the fuse.
It looks to me that the instruments, the lighting and the heater (for cold start) and the starter solenoid all together should be several amps, but not 30 amps...it should NEVER blow the fuse unless there's some chafed insulation some where or something like that. Or it could be the starter solenoid going out ... some device drawing too many amps.
I've notified the dealer and asked they investigate for deeper information about this trade-in. It wouldn't be beyond the customer to trade it in for a bigger tractor knowing there's a lurking short in the electrical system (that being an additional reason for his trading up, perhaps).
Does anybody have any ideas about likely surges that could cause the main fuse to blow other than bad insulation somewhere? (BTW, the starter motor of course is direct to the 12+ and not through this fuse.).