Massey Ferguson 210

[Daryl E Culler]

I have two questions. First I am looking for a headlight assembly for my 210. P/N 3282309M91. Second, it takes several clicks of the ignition key before the engine turns over, Is this a weak battery or another problem?

 

[EdGooding]

Get a battery load tester like this and it will let you know if it's a weak battery or the solenoid is starting to go:

 

[lpakiz]

That device will certainly tell you if your battery is bad, but I doubt that is your problem. If it were a weak battery, it would NEVER start, regardless of how many times you activated the key. Activating the key won't somehow make the battery stronger.
Make or borrow a test light. A 12 volt tail light socket and bulb from an old vehicle works great. So does a sealed-beam headlight. Just attach some leads, each a couple feet long. Alligator clips make it handy.
Hook the test light to the small wire on the starter or the starter solenoid. Activate the key and see if power makes it that far.
If so, attach the test or to the BIG wire at the starter. Activate the key. This will tell you if power is being made available to the starter motor.
Hook it to the battery cable right at the battery post. If it lights, great. If the light goes out when you hit the key, that's a poor connection right at the battery terminal. (if the tester lights up, the connection is good enough to supply a couple amps to light up a test light, but if it goes dim or completely out when you demand several hundred amps at the starter, that's a poor connection)
Test the negative side of the system as well. Power not only has to leave the battery and make it to the device, but it also MUST return to the battery via the ground (negative) terminal.

If I were to offer a WAG, I'd be betting on a bad connection in one of the big battery cables, either at the starter or at the battery posts.

If sourcing a test light is problematic, disassemble each big battery cable connection at each end, wire brush them (and the base metal, in the case of the ground cable) and reassemble. Don't forget each end of the NEGATIVE cable, as well.
A redneck test is to just HOLD the key in the "click" position for several (up to 10-15) seconds, then go around around and feel for a hot connection or watch for smoke. A bad connection will produce heat when you demand a load thru it.

 

[DanBick]

Ipakiz: I apologize if I'm inappropriately taking this thread out in left field...but you seem knowledgeable and I'd like your thoughts about a newish (125 hrs.) tractor that has always started perfectly cold but often won't crank at normal run temperature on a hot day? After it sits for 15-20 minutes it always starts. It starts fine at normal run temperature on a cool day. The battery load tests fine. This has been going on since new. I have cleaned all connections. Thanks.

 

[lpakiz]

DanBick, no problem digressing to a different problem. I've been a truck mechanic for most of my working years. I started out in 1968 by attending a Vocational school for Diesel Mechanics and acquired a little experience in the ensuing 55 years.
I suggest following my preceding advice concerning a test light of sorts. While digital meters are great for a number of diagnostic procedures, an inexperienced user of digital meters can easily be fooled because they don't fully understand the limitations. (a digital meter will indicate full source voltage thru a filament as small as a flashlight bulb, but that current would be completely inadequate to spin a starter)
So, try to come up with some sort of tester that actually requires some current to indicate voltage and amperage status.
Use your test light to follow the electricity from the source (battery positive post) to load and back to source (negative battery post). Power passes thru several connection points, any of which may intermittently fail or succeed. Yes, temperature of components can and will influence integrity of the connection.
Again, a fast and loose test is simply hold the key in "click" position for 10 seconds, then look for heat or smoke.
Me? I would hook a sealed beam headlamp to the big connection on the starter. Not the battery cable connection, but the OTHER big one which goes directly into the starter motor. See if you are getting adequate power thru all the different relays and solenoids and actually into the starter windings themselves. If not much amperage (bright test light) shows up, work backwards towards the battery.
Glad to help! I graduated Magna *** Laud from the College of Hard Knocks and am happy to pass on some of that knowledge before I leave this world.

 

[Dmacleo]

if when it finally cranks and it cranks normally its corrosion in the trigger to solenoid or the solenoid/key switch itself.
but corrosion on connections from key switch to solenoid (including stuff insulated you can't see, ohm it) most likely issue.