So My Tractor Caught on Fire Tonight

[newbury]

A friend had his tractor catch on Fire... It ended up to be a mouse nest on the exhaust. Wonder if the frayed wire was caused by a mouse also?

Which reminds me... need to mount a fire extinguisher on the tractor!!!

And a cat!

 

[Wagtail]

Definitely mount a fire extinguisher on your tractor. I did within days of getting mine, but then I'm a pedantic retired Navy bloke... got two in the house, one in the ute and two in the workshop. I recommend mounting it using a cut-up foam neoprene stubbie-holder (I think you call them a koosie?) as an anti-vibration gasket. You can see mine behind me on my ROPS.

Incidentally, I've put a first aid kit in the 'document canister'... just in case.

You said that you twisted the wires together... did you then wrap the 'splice' with electrical tape?

 

[adt2]

We've finally gotten all moved and (relatively) settled, and I've got some time to work on this now. Here's a photo of the "original" broken wire I spotted:

This is on the left-hand side of the engine, just in front of the starter solenoid. Notice that there is a plastic connector about 1" from each end of the broken wire; I have no idea why there would be such a short length of wire there. The two connections look like they'd easily be long enough to connect directly without the intermediate connection.

Next up are a couple of photos of the wire that burned. These are on the right-hand side of the engine, just below the fuel-fill:


Note the melted connector and the wire with the insulation melted off.

I've no idea where any of these wires come from or go to. The broken wire in the first photo appears to be white with a red stripe; the burned wire in the other photos looks like it may have been black, but it's hard to tell.

 

[Trials]

What's the big heatsink thing with all the cooling fins on it, is that the rectifier?

 

[careyo63]

Regulator. White and Red + to the starter is what my Dia. are showing. Open like the link is most likely Grounded out there. I can't tell how thick or what gauge the link is but I believe that's what smoked the Harness at the Regulator. Fix that and hopefully the Starter will work and move on to the Reg.. With Burnt up connections may have to do the Reg. and the rest to even get to the starter to work. Finding a new Harness maybe Doubtful. You can Jump straight to the starter and try and get it to run or even start but most likely No alt, Lights etc. may work?

 

[BertZegers]

Once I was working with a 200HP John Deere tractor when it stalled. I then saw smoke coming from under the hood, were the wiring was burning.
I put out the fire with water from my water bottle. The fire started again right away. I than knew I had to disconnect the batteries (once there is a short ,the batteries will keep igniting the wiring).
First I had to take the battery cover of, than I had to disconnect the batteries, without tools, I had to use brute force!
At that moment there was a lot bigger fire to extinguish!
After this experience I have put disconnects in the ground wire of my Kubota L2900 tractor and my KX41 excavator. My Zetor was factory equipped with one. I now always disconnect the batteries when I park the equipment.

 

[ufengineer]

Bert, what kind of disconnecter

 

[BertZegers]

Bert, what kind of disconnecter

It is like a switch, but is normally not to be used under load. That is why I refer to it as a (battery)"disconnect".

Sells at Princess auto as "battery cut off switch" (and probably Harbour Freight) at $10 or so. It has a key that you can take out if you want to.

 

[Neat 1500]

There would have been a fusible link between those connectors which has done it's job by melting protecting to a degree the wiring. It appears you have a problem with the regulator/ and or wiring to it. Sort that out first then replace the fusible link. A good auto electrician should be able to make you a new one in 5 minutes, you may be able to even buy one pre-made.

 

[winston1]

Heavy Duty Battery Cutoff Switch and
Battery Disconnect Switch