NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird....

   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird.... #1  

Flatheadyoungin

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
1,077
Location
Southern, OH
Tractor
New Holland TC45 Shuttle
Over the summer, I knocked off one of my hazzard lights completely off and the other about half. It didn't bust the case, just pulled the nutserts out of the plastic housing. I thought I drill completely through the housing and use some nice stainless bolts to replace the old one. Well, in the process (in the first pic) you can see that I had to go through the plastic housing and through the metal ground bracket. No big deal? Right?

Well, it blew a fuse like this, in all 4 bolts through the housing...

DSC07601.jpg



So, I took all the bolts out and turned on the switch. They worked fine.

Next, I took a volt meter and checked the left side.....the little metal bracket, with a black wired attached (next pic) was negative and the green wire going to the center contact of the bulb was positive. Just the way it "should be," right??

DSC07600.jpg


Well, I went to the right side and checked it too but it was just the opposite. My stainless bolt going through the housing, in to the thin metal bracket is grounding it out. Strange, on this side the black wire is positive and the green wire is negative. (see pic)

DSC07602-2.jpg


I thought about cutting them and resoldering them accordingly but I was afraid this is done for a reason.

What the heck is all of this? Should I cut them? I really hate to use rubber washer and insulate the thing metal bracket, that seems like shoddy work.....any other ideas....
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird.... #2  
Why does one light have a dual element bulb and the other a single.
Bill
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird....
  • Thread Starter
#3  
sorry, that's a little misleading......that pic is of the red lights...i just wanted to show how the bolt comes through the rops and in to the plastic housing.......

my problem is on the yellow hazzard lights....

Why does one light have a dual element bulb and the other a single.
Bill
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird.... #4  
Might contact the manufacturer. I don't think this is ciorrect. Was familiar with a minivan that had the rear lights wired to a positive ground... Worked ok until people started plugging in trailers & burned up the car...
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird....
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Surely I haven't stumped everyone with this one! Ah, heck, I'll just cut them and solder them nicely, and add heat shrink tubing.....look like a professional did it.....;)
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird.... #6  
Surely I haven't stumped everyone with this one! Ah, heck, I'll just cut them and solder them nicely, and add heat shrink tubing.....look like a professional did it.....;)

You know, this is pretty much a specific question about a specific model of tractor. My guess is that you would have received a lot more detailed and specific information if you had posted in the New Holland Owning/Operating forum. That said, because of your PM, I can maybe help a bit, but I may not be able to help you a lot because my older TC45D is a lot older than your tractor and it did not have two lights up on the ROPs.

My first question is, do you have an owner's manual? If you turn to the back of the manual, there should be a full set of electrical schematics for your tractor. Frames #3, #4, and #5 have most of the lighting circuits. On my tractor, the schematic shows a dark blue wire as positive. For example, HM-100-DB-18 is one wire's number. The "DB" stands for dark blue and BK is used for black. T is teal blue, O is orange, BR is brown, etc. Black is always shown as ground color.

I'd check your wiring harness to see if a different color is going out to the light. The only thing I can think of is that the harness to the connector has the colors in the schematic, but the lights themselves may have different color codes and may be wired differently. It's best to trust your voltmeter and act accordingly.

One thing for sure, the light bulbs don't care which wire is positive or negative. The only problem is the one that you have found. Wiring the lights differently leads to somebody getting a dead short to ground as you did. Frankly, I hate our lights and their position. They need armor shielding to prevent limbs from knocking them off. I have mine in a box in my garage. I only drive a short distance on a dead end gravel road, and almost never after dark. I've just decided that signal lights and flashers aren't necessary.

Let us know if you don't have an owner's manual. Somebody in the NH forums may be able to come up with a schematic to help. I always start with a schematic when troubleshooting. It keeps me out of trouble.:)
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird....
  • Thread Starter
#7  
thanks for the reply...

i'll double check my manual again but it wasn't very clear on the schematic i saw....it showed a positive and negative coming to a circle with a set of cross hairs in it but didn't indicate where either wire actually went....both wires just terminated at the circle's edge.....maybe i looked at the wrong page...

my wife's uncle is pretty good on electronics and was asking me if they had two 6v bulbs wired in series.......i'm assuming an 1156 bulb only comes in 12v....that's what i was just looking up on the net.....

i'm going to test for continuity between the two in a minute.....

i had it all put back together, all i had to do was put a new 1156 bulb in and put the lens on with two screws......why is it 30 second jobs turn in to a days work!:rolleyes:

You know, this is pretty much a specific question about a specific model of tractor. My guess is that you would have received a lot more detailed and specific information if you had posted in the New Holland Owning/Operating forum. That said, because of your PM, I can maybe help a bit, but I may not be able to help you a lot because my older TC45D is a lot older than your tractor and it did not have two lights up on the ROPs.

My first question is, do you have an owner's manual? If you turn to the back of the manual, there should be a full set of electrical schematics for your tractor. Frames #3, #4, and #5 have most of the lighting circuits. On my tractor, the schematic shows a dark blue wire as positive. For example, HM-100-DB-18 is one wire's number. The "DB" stands for dark blue and BK is used for black. T is teal blue, O is orange, BR is brown, etc. Black is always shown as ground color.

I'd check your wiring harness to see if a different color is going out to the light. The only thing I can think of is that the harness to the connector has the colors in the schematic, but the lights themselves may have different color codes and may be wired differently. It's best to trust your voltmeter and act accordingly.

One thing for sure, the light bulbs don't care which wire is positive or negative. The only problem is the one that you have found. Wiring the lights differently leads to somebody getting a dead short to ground as you did. Frankly, I hate our lights and their position. They need armor shielding to prevent limbs from knocking them off. I have mine in a box in my garage. I only drive a short distance on a dead end gravel road, and almost never after dark. I've just decided that signal lights and flashers aren't necessary.

Let us know if you don't have an owner's manual. Somebody in the NH forums may be able to come up with a schematic to help. I always start with a schematic when troubleshooting. It keeps me out of trouble.:)
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird.... #8  
My manual shows the directional and flasher switch on Frame 3. The blinker switch feeds a blinker relay and then into a NASO flasher unit. From the flasher unit, the wires leave as dark blue and go to Frame 4 where the lights are shown. On most of my schematics, I've used the component callout key at the bottom to find what the components are and labelled them with a pencil right on the drawing. I hate having to look up a callout number and then look at the key and go back and forth. Having a penciled in label on the the components is really handy.

Good luck. I wish I had your specific schematics and could help more, but maybe after a relook, you'll find a way to make this work. It is frustrating when something so simple proves to be a lot more complicated because of creative wiring by the OEM.
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird....
  • Thread Starter
#9  
i just cut the one wire and switched them.......works fine, now...:confused::confused:

i used spade connectors so i can change it back if need be....

now on to other things that need attention.....

thanks all, for your help!
 
   / NH TC45 Flashers- this is weird.... #10  
Good job! I don't think anyone could fault you for what you did. I think in your situation, I'd have done the same thing. I just don't know if I'd have been "brave" enough to admit it.;) :)
 
 
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