Put in a new Battery, got nothin' - I am not dumb, but maybe I'm not bright?

[rontaki]

The poor man's tester...

Grab a piece of wire with 2 bare ends and short across the battery. You should get a nice shower of sparks. ;If not then your battery is very dead.

This isn't quantitative, but it is reasonably qualitative.

You can also go from the battery positive to the solenoid ignition wire on your starter (small wire)..

I've had battery terminals that seemed tight enough, but just bad of a connection that they stop conducting as soon as the starter is activated. But, before that lights and etc would have worked.

I used to hunt for a replacement battery for my old air-cooled VW, at the local recycle place that had drop-off for car batteries. First, I'd find a metal coat hanger to use as a "tester" to see which battery gave the best sparks when shorted. Usually the battery I picked had enough oomph in it to start and run the VW for quite some time, even if it would not turn over the big V8 it probably came out of. I was living on a shoestring, a frayed one at that!

 

[rontaki]

LOL... while I know lots of stuff, almost Cliff Claven like, I wasn't familiar with that term.
My wife is puzzled at times with my knowledge of seemingly useless information.

I'm often puzzled at my own store of useless information.

 

[GS650GL]

I would not recommend shorting across a battery with a wire to see if it sparks. It's tempting and lots of people do it, but I know three people that had a battery explode in their face when it sparked. Luckily two of them only had minor injuries, but one has permanent hearing damage from the explosion. Not trying to tell anybody what to do, just want everyone to be safe. I've seen lots of injuries in over 40 years working as a mechanic. I've had a few injuries myself but luckily not from a battery (yet).

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

A few years ago helping a friend we had a spark and battery exploded. It was unbelievably violent and both instantly deaf and sprayed with sulfuric acid. We ran to a nearby water hydrant, used baking soda and deaf for a long time.
Luckily acid didn't spray our faces. We found battery case probably 100ft from truck.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Probably much safer and easier to carry a battery load tester to verify if a used battery is worth buying. it not only tells you if the voltage is good, but also if it can handle the starting load required to actually turn vehicles over.

 

[FreddyFlynn]

LADIES AND TRACTOR HEADS, MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. Epstein didnt k..oh wait wrong forum. After getting out the metal wire brushes, taking everything apart (finally have time to do so), getting a new 40 AMP green fuse, readdress every spin of the irons with small prayer, getting the mutimeter along every step back to the butt of line, using a tester light, and enjoying all of your advice, wisdom, even your electronic fist fights and peacocking, I give you....a WORKING TRACTOR!!! Yeahhh yeahhhh crowd goes wild ahhhhhhhhhh
THANK YOU for being there for me, a lot of this advice I believe is good for a lot of situations.
There will be a netflix remake.
You may ask, well Flynn, what was it, what was the cause. I do not know, all of those things I did and it came back from the dead. I am not sure of the one thing I did that was the silver bullet, I just know it started.

 

[SPYDERLK]

LADIES AND TRACTOR HEADS, MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. Epstein didnt k..oh wait wrong forum. After getting out the metal wire brushes, taking everything apart (finally have time to do so), getting a new 40 AMP green fuse, readdress every spin of the irons with small prayer, getting the mutimeter along every step back to the butt of line, using a tester light, and enjoying all of your advice, wisdom, even your electronic fist fights and peacocking, I give you....a WORKING TRACTOR!!! Yeahhh yeahhhh crowd goes wild ahhhhhhhhhh
THANK YOU for being there for me, a lot of this advice I believe is good for a lot of situations.
There will be a netflix remake.
You may ask, well Flynn, what was it, what was the cause. I do not know, all of those things I did and it came back from the dead. I am not sure of the one thing I did that was the silver bullet, I just know it started.

View attachment 4417012

So the answer is: Take apart tractor. Reassemble carefully.

 

[grsthegreat]

Congrats on getting her running again. Deka (East Penn Mfg) make great batteries….even USA manufactured.

 

[newbury]

Congrats and thanks for wrapping up the thread.

 

[anomad]

I'm often puzzled at my own store of useless information.

I prefer to describe myself as the librarian of esoteric knowledge - LOL...

 

[anomad]

A few years ago helping a friend we had a spark and battery exploded. It was unbelievably violent and both instantly deaf and sprayed with sulfuric acid. We ran to a nearby water hydrant, used baking soda and deaf for a long time.
Luckily acid didn't spray our faces. We found battery case probably 100ft from truck.

When I was in high school and working in the maintenance shop one day the tractor wouldn't start. I wheeled out the charger, like always, and we left to the cafeteria for lunch. After lunch we came back and my boss said, where is the battery? Why is everything wet? We found fragments of the battery all over the shop. Glad none of us were in there when she blew. No one used PPE back then unless arc welding.

 

[SPYDERLK]

When I was in high school and working in the maintenance shop one day the tractor wouldn't start. I wheeled out the charger, like always, and we left to the cafeteria for lunch. After lunch we came back and my boss said, where is the battery? Why is everything wet? We found fragments of the battery all over the shop. Glad none of us were in there when she blew. No one used PPE back then unless arc welding.

There is another possibility to explore. In my life I have had 2 new batteries that measured correct V with no load, but collapsed to virtually Zero with only a small load. Im talking about maybe a Watt or two -- fractional amp load.

I took them back of course.[[[ The only thing I can think of is there was a cracked internal buss conductor and acid sufficed to bridge the crack sufficient for a few milliamps - plenty for a voltmeter. If this condition exists it will behoove us to find the characteristic early and stop. I can imagine tiny sparks happening in a Hydrogen - Oxygen environ. (EEK) ]]]

 

[SPYDERLK]

I'm often puzzled at my own store of useless information.

Ya know? ... The free storage makes it a huge bargain when you find pieces fitting into lifes jigsaw puzzle. ...

 

[Timmy1957]

A neighbor called me about same thing. He had a newer John Deere. He had voltage going into a fuse block but not coming out. No fuses blown in the fuse block. Removed the fuse block and hidden behind it was a blown 250amp fuse. Replaced it and problem solved. Used a $10 test light to find the problem

 

[Racer4]

Someone should make a sticky with the specific steps to take if a machine won’t turn over. Might save some people a lot of money. I notice lots of threads on this topic, mostly posted by people who have already fired the parts cannon at their machine with no results.

 

[4570Man]

Someone should make a sticky with the specific steps to take if a machine won’t turn over. Might save some people a lot of money. I notice lots of threads on this topic, mostly posted by people who have already fired the parts cannon at their machine with no results.

Literally every single time test the battery with a volt meter and test the battery again with a volt meter while the tractor attempts to start. It should be noted to make sure the tractor is in neutral before you stand in front of it and attempt to start it. That should be the first step in any trouble shooting before any parts are bought. Assuming the battery passes that test repeat the same process except measure the voltage from the starter terminal. Probably 80 percent of no start issues are a result of failure to maintain above 12v at the starter while it’s attempting to start. The result you get from doing those 2 test should dictate the rest of the troubleshooting.

 

[dodge man]

I’d like to see a picture of the big fuse he pulled and replaced, just my curiosity.

One thing we need to understand is all of us have a different levels of skill when it comes to fixing things. What might be obvious to some of us might not be to others. Not to insult the OP be he obviously had less skills then some of us. He came here for help and got it but there were a couple of comments about him not coming back with results. My understanding was the tractor was maybe some place remote.

 

[nknelsen]

you have HST and a clutch?

Yes. The kioti CX2510 has a clutch that disables the drive train. My old CS2410 had no clutch. This tractor has a clutch where the brake was on the CS (left side) and a brake on the right, beside the hst pedals.

On the CX you also need to depress the clutch to engage either front or back pto and I didn't need to do that on the CS, on the CS, I just moved a large lever on the right side.

Im not a tractor expert but I think one of them is a live pto or something like that and the other one isn't.

Not sure but always interested in learning more.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Literally every single time test the battery with a volt meter and test the battery again with a volt meter while the tractor attempts to start. It should be noted to make sure the tractor is in neutral before you stand in front of it and attempt to start it. That should be the first step in any trouble shooting before any parts are bought. Assuming the battery passes that test repeat the same process except measure the voltage from the starter terminal. Probably 80 percent of no start issues are a result of failure to maintain above 12v at the starter while it’s attempting to start. The result you get from doing those 2 test should dictate the rest of the troubleshooting.

Setting your voltmeter up to apply a ~ 1A load would go far. Put a 10 Ohm 10W resistor across a double banana plug and apply it at the V meter input. Most all voltmeter leads should carry an amp quite harmlessly.

 

[4570Man]

Setting your voltmeter up to apply a ~ 1A load would go far. Put a 10 Ohm 10W resistor across a double banana plug and apply it at the V meter input. Most all voltmeter leads should carry an amp quite harmlessly.

I use my test light to put a small load on small gauge wires but that wouldn’t prove anything on starter cables.