TYM 603 Starter/Battery Problem

[mmranch]

Howdy folks!

OK, some background. So I had my TYM 603 in the shop and I was changing out the valve cores in the rear tires to prevent CalChlor corrosion of the cores. I jacked up the tractor and rotated the rear wheels so the valve stems were at the top of the wheel and I replaced the valve cores... all went well. I pressurized the tires and lowered the tractor and didn't move the tractor.

Couple of days later, I went to start the tractor. I let the glow plugs heat up and then turned the key. I immediately got the tap-tap-tap-tap of the starter trying to engage. Tried it several times with the same result. Then I put the tractor in gear and tried to heave on the bucket (which was on the ground) to get the tractor to wiggle and move the flywheel a bit... no joy.

So I thought back to what could have initiated the problem and decided to jack the tractor back up, put it in gear and rotate the rear wheels by hand to move the flywheel. When I then tried starting the tractor, I did not get the tapping sound and the engine tried to turn over... however the sound was like a very low battery (nur-nur-nur) and the engine was turning over slower than normal. The engine did start and I moved the tractor out of the shop and let it warm up.

Then I stopped the engine and decided to put the battery charger on. The charger showed a low battery and I left the charger on all afternoon and the battery seemed to charge up.

In the evening, I went to put the tractor back in the shop. I removed the battery charger and then tried to start the tractor. Got the same starter tap-tap-tap-tap sound and the engine never would turn over. I then put the charger back on the battery and left it on overnight.

I have not yet tried to start the tractor this morning.

I'm guessing a bad starter or solenoid?

Regarding the battery, the battery is longer than a regular automotive battery. It does have a little viewport on the battery to display battery condition but the writing on the battery is all in Korean so I can't tell what it means. Do tractors have to have special batteries or will a normal 12 volt battery work?

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Agvg]

Bad battery or you have some connection problems, tryed to messure voltage on the battery when trying to start?

 

[Dave M7040]

You need to spend $10 on a cheap multimeter to avoid chasing ghosts.

If you get one , don't put the selector on the same setting as the image above but rather on the 20 to the left of center.

Posting some images of your tractor, your battery, cables and starter will be a help for us to see potential issues you may not.

The place where the battery negative cable or ground cable attaches to the tractor frame or engine block is a commonly overlooked item but turns out to be important.

Remove the connection, polish all surfaces. A poor connection can allow small amounts of current to pass through but larger amounts cannot.

Buying a new battery cable with an eye on each end and then running it from the point described above to a bolt holding on the starter can be a big help. The starter relies on a good connection to the engine block for a ground circuit. Older tractors develop rust between the starter and engine block resulting in a poor ground for the starter. The twin eye battery cable avoids that problem or corrects it if present now.

This link to DENSO's starter system trouble shooting takes you step by step with a multimeter.

http://densoautoparts.com/Portals/D...s/file/DENSO Starter troubleshooting tips.pdf

Look forward to hearing from you again on this problem, either with a success story of more questions.

Regarding the battery to buy, a diesel engine has high current draw for glow plugs and then the starter itself.

You need to get one the same physical size, the + and - terminals on the same end then go to any battery supplier and ask for a battery with the highest CCA that will fit the space requirements. Of course it will be the most expensive.

Taking your battery to an autoparts place and having it load tested will tell you a lot. Rereading your initial post makes me think that this a good starting point regardless of what the magic eye in the battery tells you.

Dave M7040

 

[mmranch]

Thanks very much for all the great tips!

The battery was very clean but I cleaned it and the terminals and cable heads anyway. The battery sight glass shows 'green' (which is usually associated with 'good'). My multi-meter shows the battery as being good with readings from 12V to 16V depending on whether it's just come off the charger or has been used several times to try to start the engine. When charging... the meter shows the charging with readouts such as 14.01V, 14.02V, 14.03V, etc. etc.

I will clean the negative cable frame connection and check out that starter/multi-meter link.

I will have the battery tested at the auto parts store. (Seems like I could use an auto battery in place of the tractor battery to see if the starter spins normally)

I wanted to move the tractor back into the shop to work on it... so I tried starting the tractor again and got the starter tap sounds again. So I jacked up the rear wheels again and put it in gear and moved the rear wheels by hand to another position. I tried starting it but got the tapping sounds again. Rotated the wheels to a different position and tried again... this time, no tapping and the engine turned over but seemingly slow with the nur-nur-nur sounds. Because I had let the glow plugs heat up, the engine started and I let it warm up and them moved it back into the shop then turned it off. Tried to start it again, and it turned over slowly and the engine started again. Waiting for it all to cool down again and will try to start it again.

Will report back.

Thanks again.

 

[mmranch]

Thanks again to all for the suggestions!

I went to inspect the ground connection at the tractor frame and found that when the cable was unbolted... the area was painted metal. So I cleaned the area down to bare metal and reconnected the ground cable. Now the starter is (so far) cranking properly and starting every time.

Thanks again.

 

[Dave M7040]

Thanks again to all for the suggestions!

I went to inspect the ground connection at the tractor frame and found that when the cable was unbolted... the area was painted metal. So I cleaned the area down to bare metal and reconnected the ground cable. Now the starter is (so far) cranking properly and starting every time.

Thanks again.

MM
Thanks for the final chapter. Knowing this suggestion helped means I can use it for other owners who doubt their problem could be so simple.

Likely for some time, the bolt securing the ground cable to the engine was providing a ground through the bolt threads. Over time the contact points between the bolt thread and the block probably burned off with the high starting current.

Suggest you check the bolt going into the block to make certain its threads are in top condition. That is one hole in the engine block you would not want damaged thread on.

Dave M7040