TC35 Smoke (lots) and Flames (small)

artster · Oct 11, 2003

Interesting day today. We parked the TC35 outside of the shed while doing some insulating inside. About an hour or two later I heard some funny crackling noises. I looked out to see lots of smoke coming from my TC35. When I got over there, I could see that the smoke and some small flames were coming from near the exhaust sytem. The fire extinguisher was used. We quickly found out that the cause was that the cable that goes from the battery to the starter was shorting on the exhaust pipe.

Evidently over time (my TC35 is about 4 years old) the heat from the exhaust pipe had eventually burned/worn through the plastic cable guides and the cable insulation and shorted to ground (the exhaust pipe).

Seems to me like the routing of the starter cable is too close to the exhaust pipe.

You may want to check yours. (If you see any problem - you may want to disconnect the cable from the battery until whatever appropriate repair can be made.) I am not sure what would have happened if we were not close by.

I searched the forum for similar problems, but did not find a similar thread.

markie61 · Oct 11, 2003

Yikes! I'm checking mine tomorrow!
Mark

rdam · Oct 11, 2003

Holy Smokes !!!! ( No pun intended)

Lucky for you she wasn't in the barn and you were there to put out the fire !!!

Don't get rid of her, she's got impecable timing.

jinman · Oct 12, 2003

Thank you very much for the heads-up! I'll be checking my tractor even though it's not a TC35, better safe than sorry.

LAGEORGE · Oct 12, 2003

On my NH TC 24D I notice the wires run pretty close to the exhaust pipe of the tractor. But I thought if New Holland can do it so can I, so I ran my strobe cable the same way. Now I guess I better check it out and built so kind of heat shied.

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

George

Mark_in_NH · Oct 12, 2003

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Yikes! I'm checking mine tomorrow! )</font>

I am going to check mine right now, the heck with tomarrow.

arster,
thanks for the heads up and welcome to the TBN.

artster · Oct 12, 2003

I would be interested to hear what others have seen when they checked this. Maybe my cable came loose from a mount, or a wire tie broke? How far from the exhaust pipe is your cable?

Just curious.

I will be calling the dealer tomorrow and ordering a new cable.

jinman · Oct 12, 2003

My tractor is a TC45D and there are some dimensional differences because of the 4-cylinder engine, but when I checked this afternoon, the cable is at least 4" away from the exhaust pipe at the closest point. I do think it's possible for a limb or some debris below the tractor to push the cable up so that it touched the exhaust pipe. Thanks again for letting us know about this possible problem. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Mark_in_NH · Oct 13, 2003

On my "2003" TC35D, The battery cable runs along with 2 hydraulic lines which are about 1.5 inchs to the inside (backside) of the exhaust pipe. The battery cable is tie wrapped to the hydraulic line that is furthest in.

PineRidge · Oct 14, 2003

An electrical short and the resulting fire has always concerned me. Bad enough losing a tractor but it would also take out the pole barn as well all other contents. When I purchaed my 25HP Bison tractor 5 years ago I installed a battery disconnect switch right on the + terminal. Now when I put the tractor away for the night, I pull the key and flip the disconnect. It kills all power to the tractor, hence no chance of an electrical fire. I am planning to add one to my class 3 Boomer when it arrives as well.