NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i'm going nuts!!!

[rvb]

NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

I only have 185 hours on the tractor and I got it from the guy I bought my house from. The neighbor doesn't recall the guy ever having trouble with it. It's a great tractor (my first), but I've been having horrible frustration from it. It's turned what I thought would be a joy into an ulcer. So here's the deal...

I'm having a problem with the 5 amp fuse that protects the fuel solenoid, safety start circuit, instrumentation panel, gauges and indicator lights, and alternator on my TC 30.

It's driving me nuts! I just can't figure it out. I thought I had a pinched wire in the instrument cluster, but it's still blowing out intermittently. I can identify any pattern to it.

It will blow while I'm just plodding along in a straight line. It will blow if I just start the tractor and let it idle. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

It doesn't do it all the time, but when it starts to do it, it keeps right on doing it. Then, as mysterious as it began, it stops. Any help is appreciated. I'm at my wits end (I didn't have far to go in the first place).

rvb

 

[Henro]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

rvb,

These kind of electrical problems can drive anyone nuts...

I will suggest something you could do, maybe, to help narrow the problem down.

If you can follow the wire from the fuse that is blowing to where it splits, and feeds two different paths, put a smaller fues in each wire leading away from that point and see which of those blows.

Then follow that wire to where it splits and again put those same fuses in the two wires leading from the the second split, and so on.

This will lead you to the faulty wire or component.

You will not find the problem while it is not there. You have to have a way to find it when it is there, and at the moment you only know it is there when it blows that fuse...and then you put a new fuse in and the problem is not there anymore. Certainly frustrating.

Now if you have an ohm meter, you may be able to find the problem using the meter. What you would be looking for is a leakage path to ground that was high enough not to blow the fuse normally, but which could be read with the ohm meter. This can get confusing if you are not familiar with electrical troubleshooting, because solenoids and lamp bulbs will read resistance to ground, so you may have to take the wires off them to determine if there is a "partial short" in the wiring...

And if the problem is actually in a component that a wire is connected to, when you remove the wire you also remove the problem from the circuit you are checking.

I would probably go the fuse route myself for an intermittant problem like you are experiencing...for all anyone knows, it could be a short in the fuel shutoff solenoid that is temperature dependent, and only shorts when the solenoid gets hot a bit, after it is activated for a while with use.

Sometimes with problems like these in the mill where I worked it was so expensive to have a delay, that rather than apply our troubleshooting skills, we just changed out suspected bad components as in the end it was cheaper to take a guess, while at the same time monitoring and trying to locate the root problem. Can't do that at home though...costs too much most of the time.

Happy hunting! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[billbill1]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

RVB, have you checked to insure that the 5 amp fuse is the correct size for the circuit? It could be that it is supposed to be a 10 amp fuse or something different. Will that tractor stop when the fuse blows? If not, start unhooking components one at a time until it quits blowing the fuse and see if you can locate it by that means. The fuel solenoid could be the problem as it could short to ground after heating up (like Henro said)

 

[RickB]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

Check the harness going to the neutral safety switches and relays located inside the left rear wheel. Particularly around the difflock linkage.

 

[rvb]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm going out with this email in hand to look at this bad boy.

The manual does say that it should be a 5 amp fuse, but I'm going to double check that the 5 amp fuse is in the right place. Then I'll set about checking the other stuff. I'll check-in later today and let you know what I find.

If anyone thinks of anything else, please post it. I'm reading and working hard on this! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

rvb

 

[Henro]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

The following is "thinking out of the box" that I ran into in the past. Not something I would do myself probably...but then again I just might at some point as I climbed up tha ladder of frustration. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

In one mill where I worked there were numbers of lamps high in the rafters (100' up) all fed in banks by fused disconnect switches. If a lamp failed (short in the ballast or whatever) it took out a whole bank of lighting. Due to location it was difficult to determine which lamp fixture was the problem, especially since overhead travelling cranes were running up and down the bays to meet production schedules.

More than once I was told an electrician would take a much larger fuse, wire it in temporarily, and close the the disconnect and watch for smoke (or more).

Fuses are there to protect the circuit wiring, the power supply feeding the circuit, or circuit components. If all else fails, you could if you were daring, substitute a larger fulse for that proper 5 amp one and watch for smoke! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

On a slightly more reasonable note, did you mention the tractor quits when the fuse blows? If so, you could start the tractor and while it is running pull and poke on as many wires as you can get to, with the hope that if it is a partial short you cause it to go directly to ground and the tractor quitting will tell you when the fuse blows, which will point you at the problem area...

 

[rvb]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

Hey, Rick B. I'm a Rick B. too! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Anyways, I checked the wiring and it looks good; no bare wires, no messed up insulation, no pinched wires. Any other ideas? Is it time to just call the local tractor place and have them send someone out?

I hate to give up on these problems, but I NEED to get this thing going and mow my 9 acres without getting stranded again.

Also, can someone explain the PTO to me. If I'm mowing, should I make sure the RPMs are up high enough so the needle is on the PTO symbol? What should my tire pressure be; the max on the tires? I just don't know if they should be low to get more traction or what.

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm very new to the tractor world.

rvb

 

[Soundguy]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

For the pto, yes.. if you are mowing, the mower was designed to be run at full pto speed. Keep your tach close tot he mark.

My manual has tire pressures listed for my NH tractor... does yours?

Soundguy

 

[rvb]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My manual has tire pressures listed for my NH tractor... does yours?)</font>

Yup. er...I guess I should have been more clear. What I meant was, are there certain pressures for certain situations/topography, etc.? It seems that the pressure I have them at now is alright. I was curious what others were running.

rvb

 

[GARBLUES]

Re: NH TC30 5 amp fuse blowing...i\'m going nuts!!!

According to my TC30 manual that fuse is supposed to be 10 amps