PT woes..... 1850 wiring

[ernemats]

Several times my tilt seat was not working right , Terry had me bleed air out of the tilt system and it helped, I cannot remember what I had to do though

 

[SpringHollow]

Clearly, the larger PT's cause amnesia - perhaps the diesel fumes? Certainly in my case, it has nothing to do with age etc.

Ken

 

[MikeOConnor]

I've got a couple 1850 wiring diagrams for ya. They both came from this forum, but long enough ago that I can't remember who pushed them to me. Amnesia, fersure. I'm in.

Here's one, i think created by somebody on the forum



Here's a link to the other one -- looks like it's from PowerTrac

1850 Wiring diagram 6-1-20110001

I use 'em both and kinda triangulate between them.

Here's how you clear the air out of the seat gizmo.

- disconnect one end of the hydraulic cylinder (I think I disconnect the seat end and leave the frame end attached)

- fire up the PT and rock the (now freely swinging) seat from one extreme to the other a few times. Yes, this is indeed a balancing act if your dead-man switch requires that you're sitting on the seat.

- reattach the hydraulic cylinder to the seat

If your mercury switches are all working correctly, the piston on the cylinder should have moved from one end of its travel to the other as you move the seat back and forth. A few full cycles of the cylinder will push the air out. If it *doesn't* move in harmony with your swinging the seat back and forth, then it's time to start diagnosing the mercury switches and circuits.

 

[AVIVIII]

Found a lot of stuff, nothing solved yet...
-Even with the seat detached from the piston, I can't get the piston to move or follow the seat. In fact, after trying it detached from the seat, the piston sucked itself in even further.

-I pulled more panels than I really wanted to and all I found were these 2 big fuses(20a and 50a) and a circuit breaker. Being a boat and airplane guy, I find this appalling and kinda scary... Both fuses were good, BTW.

-The connection that I found disconnected from the hydraulic thermostat was burnt.

-Someone has had their grubby little fingers in there before me with a seat problem it seems....

As far as the operation of the circuit goes,

If someone wants to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, the ORG/BLK wire is supplying 12v to the "tilt seat Cartridge w/ coil" via a connection with 2 black wires. The mercury tilt switches are both grounded so when they make a connection, it closes the appropriate circuit and powers the coil, providing pressure to the appropriate side of the seat piston until reading level again. So in testing them, both switches and leads should be grounded, but the leads should not have continuity between them. With the system on, I should have 12v at the ORG/BLK wire and at both Black wires and the white wires from the coils should be connected to the mercury switches.

So given that first observation and the wiring diagram, I'm assuming that the system sees one of the switches grounded and it shouldn't be?

I've got more work to do and have't even looked at the fan/beacon/worklight situation yet...

 

[MikeOConnor]

Yep, that behavior with the seat and the piston means it's wiring not air that's causing the trouble. I'm not an electrical Smart Person so if I were in your situation, I'd be on the hunt for a local one of those critters. In my case, back when I wiped out the generator, I threw up my hands at all the goofy electrical stuff and sent mine to Power Trac for an 800-hour inspection/maintenance/repair session. It came back *way* better than when it left -- they found a hydraulic issue with the steering that cured a whole bunch of weird troubles, fixed up all the wiring troubles, etc.

 

[AVIVIII]

Made some progress today...
I checked and double checked all the switches, grounds, and voltages, everything seemed to be getting to where it needed to. I switched wires between the two solenoids to see if I could get it to fail in the other direction. No dice. My neighbor saw the garage open so stopped in just as I was about to buy some new solenoids on amazon. Apparently, they are very common as his tree shear uses the same ones. He happened to have a new one in the truck so we tested the coil resistance on his vs. my two and they were all the same. I stuck the camera down in there one more time and when I looked at the picture:
View attachment 564182

I noticed the little, red, knurled knob on top of the actuator. It moved and spun. I tried to unscrew it, screw it back in and it just spun. I could push and pull it up and down, maybe 1/4". I put everything back together, defeated. I was just about to move on to something else and when I started the tractor, the seat tipped. So now it works and I have no idea why; bad contact/connection/wire? playing with the little red knob? The wiring from the seat to the solenoids is pretty bad, there are multiple butt splices and spade connectors that can definitely be eliminated and probably 2 feet of loose wire I can remove. I'll have to restock on my shrink wrap connectors and then we'll get at it, but I seriously didn;t change a thing....

The cooling fan works! when you run 12v directly to it.... It is supposed to blow outward, correct? I put the heat gun on it and never got it to close, so I'm going to pick up a new snap disk thermostat this week, but in the mean time I've got some wire chasing to do as both leads that connect to it are grounded and, judging from the terrible schematics, they shouldn't be. However, that schematic also shows the fan in line with the starter solenoid, so go figure.... The snap disk switch should just switch +12v, right? seems simple enough. I have half a mind just to wire it 'on' with the tractor...

Beacon - 12v and good ground check all the way to the beacon. Still didn't work with a direct line from the battery. Opened up the beacon and one of the big capacitors is broken right off. No good, ordered a new one.
Rear light - As far as I can tell, the bulb is blown, but the tractor is also missing a bonding strap from the hood to the frame. Not sure if it ever had one, but it will soon. I'm not going to trouble shoot the light, I'm going to just replace it with some rear facing LEDs mounted somewhere on the exterior and some new wiring.

Thanks for the help thus far. We'll get her sooner or later!

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

After my fan thermothingy failed, I just put an alligator clip on the wire and clip it to the positive lead on the starter before I start up, and remove it when I'm done. Some day (yeah, right) I'll add a switch or wire it to a hot-when-running lead.

 

[AVIVIII]

Some day (yeah, right) I'll add a switch or wire it to a hot-when-running lead.

I think I'm going to do that. The setup as it is is pretty weak. I'll ultimately replace it with a relay to keep the wacky wiring as it is until I figure it all out. Maybe I'll put a fuse in too, what a crazy idea...

 

[woodlandfarms]

I am on set but I run some massive light on my machine. You can get some nice light bars on eBay. Most of us have placed lights under the rops. Best place to do it. I replaced my seat wire as noted. Glad I did. I bet your issue is in the wire.