Problem with 1720 starting

[Morning Wood]

My Ford 1720 has an issue. It happened a couple times and this third time seems to be all the time now. Was running fine. Turned it off for a second. Went to restart it and nothing. Just a click. Fooled around with wires etc. removed battery leads and cleaned terminals and it started up no problem. Used it again without any issues. Went to do a warm restart again at a later date and same thing happened. This time I removed the lead to the starter motor and it fired right back up. I did remove the battery and put it on my charger. The charger just immediately went to green and said it was charged. It happened a 3rd time to my father. Today I eventually jump started it with my truck. So, turning the key to start it nothing would happen. Just a click or not even that. Dash lights do light up. When you jump start it with cables it turns over very slow. When it is working fine though, the battery cranks it over very nicely. Today I got it to turn over enough to just catch and run. Not sure what the problem is. There is really nothing to the electornics of this thing. I'm thinking it is either bad ground, bad starter, or bad main lead from battery to starter. Not really sure what to check. Is there anything I can do to trouble shoot this? Thanks, nick.

 

[jimmysisson]

How many hours on the machine? Solenoid or starter bushings come to mind. Or a faulty battery with some weak cells.
Jim

 

[Morning Wood]

Well, I decided to remove battery cables and then reattach them. Fired right up. All I can think is that the battery lead is no good. I'll check it for continuity or the battery is no good. Makes sense why jump starting it would turn it over slowly. Battery was purchased in April of 2014.

Sorry. 1000 hours +

 

[Turbys_1700]

Mine has an intermittent issue with the neutral switch on the reverser column. Always starts but I have to shift the lever back and forth to activate the switch.

 

[Morning Wood]

That has crossed my mind. The switch has been replaced a couple years ago. I wonder if removing the battery cable and then reattaching it somehow bumps the switch. Jiggling the shifter does not help the switch. It's such a pain getting at the switch unfortunately. I'll take it off and see if any of the connections are loose or corroded. Thanks.

 

[kirkawilson]

Be sure to check the battery ground connection on the chassis. Might want to unscrew the connection bolt and clean the contact metal shiny clean. My 1920 had recurring start problems that eventually forced me to bypass the wiring harness completely and add a push-button start switch. Unfortunately, this "fix" bypasses all of the safety switches.

 

[Morning Wood]

If the neutral switch was the problem than I wouldn't think putting jumper cables on the tractor and having it turn over weakly would allow this. That is what the tractor does. I put jumper cables on it and it will turn over weakly like the jumper cables are the only thing providing power. I'd think with a bad switch it wouldn't make a difference.

 

[Morning Wood]

Be sure to check the battery ground connection on the chassis. Might want to unscrew the connection bolt and clean the contact metal shiny clean. My 1920 had recurring start problems that eventually forced me to bypass the wiring harness completely and add a push-button start switch. Unfortunately, this "fix" bypasses all of the safety switches.

I have removed the bolt and cleaned it up.

 

[kirkawilson]

You might want to read through some previous postings. If you search postings under my username, you will find numerous starting problem postings. My push-button harness bypass was my final solution, but you might be able to troubleshoot and find a better fix.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ing/355187-nh-1920-wont-start.html?highlight=

 

[Morning Wood]

Will do. We've run the tractor without the neutral safety switch and I find it dangerous to do so. I'll get it figured out at some point. There isn't much to it which is a good thing.