Rat Disaster. Need Electrical Help.

[N80]

Started to do some mowing this weekend and heard a bang under the hood and noticed my fuel and water temp gauges were not functioning and no dash lights came on. The bang was the HUGE rat getting whacked by the fan. I looked under the hood to find a giant rat's nest on top of the engine and my breather hose chewed in two. See picture below:

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So, no problem here. Easy to fix. Although who knows how much debris got sucked into the air intake from the breather tube. Next I pulled the dash out and here is what I found:

It was putrid in there. Rat poop all over the place and so much rat pee the metal bracketing was rusted. As you can see they chewed clean through the wire harness going into the gauge cluster. Once I removed the hood and all the fairings I cleaned everything and then teased out the wire ends of the cut wire and it looks like this:

I'll replace the breather tube but not sure what to do about the dash. I see three options: #1-replace entire wiring harness. This sounds like a pricey, complicated option but would be the best fix. Also, the wire the comes off the harness that goes to the glow plugs was chewed off and completely gone. #2-take it to a shop that can splice the dash wires back together. This will require hauling the tractor somewhere and probably a little expensive. #3-splicing the wires myself. This might sound like the obvious option but I know nothing about electrical repairs. However, the wires are color coded and it would seem to me all I need to do is buy some wire and connect like colors. I cannot connect the cut ends directly because there is no 'extra' length in the harness.

What I need to know is an idiot proof way to splice these wires together. I'm willing to buy whatever tool or crimper I might need. I just need someone to show me which type of connectors and which tool. I also need to know what gauge wire to buy....I don't know what type is in the tractor. Any practical advice appreciated. Not sure what I'll do about the glow plug wire. They cut it off right where it comes out of the harness. I'll have to cut into the harness to loosen up a free end to splice to.

Again, all help and advice appreciated.....don't underestimate my ignorance in electrical matters.

 

[Inspector507]

According to Messick's website the wire harness is around $300. It is part #TC230-30317. That may help your decision.

 

[TomSeller]

I would check with Kubota on the price of the harness before making a decision. It looks to me that you have enough wire to work with to splice with but it would not be pretty and it would not be my first choice. I would start right away on planning how to get rid of the rat problem or you will have this damage back.

 

[/pine]

I would use solider and heat shrink tubing...strip back and "tin" the chewed ends...slide a section of heat shrink on the wires and then solider them together then shrink the tubing over the connection...
..."tinning" the ends first makes it very easy to solider the ends together with just a little overlap...I use a pair of hemostats as a third hand...

 

[hosspuller]

Since the area is not exposed to weather, I would get a box of name brand butt splices. Stacon or similar. A wire stripper and a crimper.... add a few inches to the harness to ease your working area.... go to town on it.
Remember. you can use a bigger wire size but not a smaller gauge wire in your splicing.

 

[TomSeller]

I would use solider and heat shrink tubing...strip back and "tin" the chewed ends...slide a section of heat shrink on the wires and then solider them together then shrink the tubing over the connection...
..."tinning" the ends first makes it very easy to solider the ends together with just a little overlap...I use a pair of hemostats as a third hand...

I agree, if you are going to splice, this is a good way. N80, have you done electrical soldering before?

 

[JBourquin]

According to Messick's website the wire harness is around $300. It is part #TC230-30317. That may help your decision.

I would check with Kubota on the price of the harness before making a decision. It looks to me that you have enough wire to work with to splice with but it would not be pretty and it would not be my first choice. I would start right away on planning how to get rid of the rat problem or you will have this damage back.

Definitely check with your local dealer first, but for $300 I think I'd like the piece of mind and not have to chase electrical gremlins for the next few years.

 

[timster2]

Time to learn how to solider. Solider and heat shrink tubing as stated by /Pine is the way to go. Butt connectors will work short term but give you gremlins down the road. Back when I was fixing trash trucks we came across this often, those rats can chew a wiring harness overnight. Clean out the whole area and put down some rat repellent or they will be back!

 

[brin]

Definitely check with your local dealer first, but for $300 I think I'd like the piece of mind and not have to chase electrical gremlins for the next few years.

I agree....+1

 

[radioman]

If I were you, I would solder everything and heat shrink tubes on everything. Soldering is not hard. Just practice on a few scrap wires and solder them together.

All you need is :
solder iron (or wood burning iron) ( clean the tip with 220 sandpaper and tin it. tinning means put solder on it after cleaning and there will be a nice shiny coat of solder on it. it heats the best this way)
small spool of rosin core solder wire (best and easiest to work with for electrical wiring)
a bag/box of heat shrink tubes cut into roughly 2-3 inches long . I can do it with 1-2 inches , but for a novice its easier with a longer tube
wire strippers

All you gotta do is strip wires back half inch or so. slip heat shrink tubing on the wires to one side. match the wires and twist the wires together. fold flat. solder. this way no third hand is needed. move to next one until all wires are soldered together and then slip the heat shrink tubes covering the soldered connection and use the same solder iron rubbing it making the tubing shrink. after testing that everything works and verify the fuses didnt blow from the wires being cut, I would wrap the whole thing with electrical tape.

 

[Rocky Hoffler]

I have heard dryer sheets will keep vermin away cheap as they are I would try.

 

[N80]

I don't think I'm going to spend $300 on a new harness plus running the whole thing to replace the old one.

I used to solder some on RC race trucks. I was terrible at it. And this will be very awkward with the dash assembly dangling to one side. And there really isn't an extra inch of wire to work with. It would be very tight, close work. Just don't feel confident enough to do it well. But, I've got a soldering iron (a cheap one, which is probably part of the reason I'm so bad at it) and some soldering wire so I can certainly try it. Nothing to lose. What do I need to shrink the heat shrink? Will a hair dryer work? (Edit: I missed where you said I could just use the soldering iron.)

The other issue is that these are just gauges (and the fuel float doesn't work half the time anyway. Tractor runs just fine. So this is not a critical repair. So the butt connectors really sound appealing to me. I know soldering is better but is bad soldering better than butt connectors?

As far as the rats....and there are mice too....I don't know what to do. This is the first problem in 6 years of the tractor living outdoors. I've had to clean out plenty of nests but have never had them chew on anything. And the tractor will have to stay outside (open shed). For a while I had a TomCat enclosed poison holder and that seemed to keep the wood rats gone, but not the mice. I'm also pretty sure it was mice that got in behind the dash, that rat was too big to fit in that tiny space.

Finally, does anyone know if the glow plug wire is just a single wire or a pair? From the frayed end it looks like a single wire. I've got the service manual and wiring diagram so I can check if no one knows offhand. This isn't a big deal as I almost never need the glow plug. Even on cold days it fires up even when I forget to use the glow plug.

 

[PILOON]

I used to do wireing in aircraft.
Heat shrink and solder would be my preference. I'd be generous and probably add about 6 inches. If the dash end is easy to solder you might want to eliminate one solder joint and go directly to the dash.
Just be sure to use same gauge wire or betterand be sure to join same colors , just do one at a time.
The trick is to twist wires B4 applying solder and then a slight drop of solder and done!
Make life easy and buy a small heat shrink gun for a pro job.

Glow plug wire will be single (the plug, which is ground) completes the circuit. You will note that glow plug wire is heavier guage as it carries a lot of current.

 

[TomSeller]

Finally, does anyone know if the glow plug wire is just a single wire or a pair? From the frayed end it looks like a single wire. I've got the service manual and wiring diagram so I can check if no one knows offhand. This isn't a big deal as I almost never need the glow plug. Even on cold days it fires up even when I forget to use the glow plug.

The glow plugs use the engine block to get the - side. There should be a switched + that jumps from one to the next glow plug. I have seen individual wires as well, but they go back to the single switched point. Somewhere I saw a spark plug type connector to the glow plugs, but not on your vintage. It is likely simple electrical connector rings on the end of wires under a nut. Sometimes a rod or a bar.

 

[N80]

Thanks for all the info guys. I found some butt connectors that have heat shrink around them. I actually have the proper crimp tool for these. What is the downside to this verses soldering?

The individual wires are tiny. Any way to tell precisely what gauge they are?

Also, there are two black wires in the bundle. On the wiring diagram it looks like they both tie into a common lead so I'm assuming it makes no difference which black goes to which black?

 

[PILOON]

The main downside to butt connectors is the mass they create hence I prefer solder technique.
Generally black is ground or negative so no matter.
An ohm meter would confirm if those blacks are common grounds.
You also can buy heat shrink that incorporates hot melt and in just about any gauge.

The factory harness being $200. means your labor will earn you at least $100/hr or more. LOL

 

[Scott65]

Sorry to sound uninformed here. I read your entire first post and just skimmed all the rest so I didn't get all the replies, just trying to help. I'm limited on time and on my phone...
Personally, I wouldn't do the harness. While it would no doubt be the BEST fix, it's really going to suck when they chew through it again. The next best would be solder and heat shrink, but only if your decent at it. If you aren't, a bad solder joint can be worse than a butt splice. I saw mentioned to fold the wires over themselves. This works, i don't like it only because it fattens the wire bundle and can cause wire strands to poke through your heat shrink and short to other wires or ground. To the person that suggested this, no offense, I'm certainly not saying it doesn't work. Lastly, if the first 2 are ruled out, I would say butt splices are the next best. The little blue or pink ones would work as long as it's dry. But you pointed out all the rat pee rusting the metal. I'll try to link pictures of what I use when working on customer vehicles when soldering isn't an option. Plus again, the plastic coated splices fatten the harness.


Any time with DC current, use multi strand wire. I also suggest marine heat shrink. Also called adhesive lined or double layered. That would make it water tight for sure.

And on the glow plugs. I'm a truck diesel mechanic, not tractors. But I would imagine it's the same. As stated, it should be a single wire for power and ground through the threads of the plug itself. And if you can only find one wire, it's common for the power source to daisy chain from one plug to the next.
Hope I didn't leave anything out

 

[Scott65]

I did leave something out... If your going to crimp, do yourself a huge favor. Don't use the cheapo crimp tool that comes with most wire sets. Use one that has the little tang to crimp into the wire. The other will almost always leave a weak crimp somewhere in the bundle that will eventually pull out. I googled some pics but i can't tell on my phone which is which. The black ones are good. Yellow are a no no.

 

[/pine]

can you not remove the instrument cluster assembly from the dash and enough of the harness to give you some comfort room to work on the repairs?

 

[woodlandfarms]

If money i tight, tin and shrinkwrap. Butt connectors pull apart.

But, and this is for me, I find these small wires will break again at these connection points. the solid tin and the flexible copper in a vibrating application spells failure in the future (but if it fails, at least you know the first place to look).

Maybe I have no luck with electrical, but I would replace it. $300 to keep you from your tractor failing in afield is priceless in my book