So an amazingly fortuitous thing happened. As noted in my original post, my tractor broke down at the end of my driveway. I was working on it yesterday evening to replace the 40 amp main fuse holder with an inline 40 amp resettable breaker switch. A man (Tom) who just retired as a mechanic from a local tractor dealer, was driving by and stopped. He asked what happened and I explained. He said he couldn't do anything then, but could come back tomorrow. I happily accepted. I finished installing the inline breaker last night. Although one of the fours wires in the connectior for the ignition switch got too warm and melted a little of he plastic, I deemed it still OK to reuse for now. I reassembled that, then turned the ignition to the glow plug heat position and the glow plug light went off at the proper time instead of staying on. I didn't try to start the tractor then.
Today, Tom came over and we went over the tractor together looking for any frayed wires or shorts. As best as we can tell, here is what happened. Oddly enough, even though the 40 amp main fuse was melted and the fuse connector was melted, the fuse never blew. Once Tom cleaned off the fuse blades enough to get a connection, he tested and there was continuity (this as not the first thing we did, btw, he had a thought after we talked quite a bit about what happened and what might have caused it). The starter had been going bad for a long time. It would only start intermittently, so I had to turn the ignition multiple times until it would finally catch. Tom suspected the bad starter cause a lot of heat to build up in the main fuse over time and it melted, but didn't draw enough amps to pop. There was still enough of an electrical connection to run the tractor until for whatever reason the night it broke down it finally had enough and the circuit was open due to corrosion on the burnt components rather than popping the fuse.
At the same time, there appears to be a problem somewhere with the hazard lights. When the engine is not running, the hazard lights work fine and the turn signals work fine. HOWEVER, when the engine is running and the hazard lights are on, they start flickering and don't work correctly. The problem is even worse when the headlights are on, too. We don't know what exactly is causing the problem, but I was satisfied with the situation for now. I just won't use the hazard lights (I can get by without) for the time being.
Today, Tom came over and we went over the tractor together looking for any frayed wires or shorts. As best as we can tell, here is what happened. Oddly enough, even though the 40 amp main fuse was melted and the fuse connector was melted, the fuse never blew. Once Tom cleaned off the fuse blades enough to get a connection, he tested and there was continuity (this as not the first thing we did, btw, he had a thought after we talked quite a bit about what happened and what might have caused it). The starter had been going bad for a long time. It would only start intermittently, so I had to turn the ignition multiple times until it would finally catch. Tom suspected the bad starter cause a lot of heat to build up in the main fuse over time and it melted, but didn't draw enough amps to pop. There was still enough of an electrical connection to run the tractor until for whatever reason the night it broke down it finally had enough and the circuit was open due to corrosion on the burnt components rather than popping the fuse.
At the same time, there appears to be a problem somewhere with the hazard lights. When the engine is not running, the hazard lights work fine and the turn signals work fine. HOWEVER, when the engine is running and the hazard lights are on, they start flickering and don't work correctly. The problem is even worse when the headlights are on, too. We don't know what exactly is causing the problem, but I was satisfied with the situation for now. I just won't use the hazard lights (I can get by without) for the time being.
