Cant start.... continued

[Lost in Sweden]

As I previously wrote, after an electrical burnout involving improperly grounding new headlights, my dexta (63) would not start. At that fateful event, the tractor started just fine, sounded normal and only after a minute I noticed the red wire leading from the regulator to the front lights burning, so I then turned off the tractor. After the fire I found that all other electrical functions are fine. I followed advice here and discovered that electricity can activate the solenoid (clicking sound included) and result in electricity in the main cable to the start motor, but no action at all results from this (no sound what so ever). I tested this with a 12v indicator, but have no idea if the amps are ok. The battery is new as of a few weeks ago, bought and mounted after the fire.
Is it common for a electrical fire involving lights to burn out a start motor? Is there a chance that the start motor is fine, but the amps are too low, perhaps due to a faulty solenoid/wires?
Is it common for a broken start motor to be absolutely silent (no reaction) when electrified? I had expected at least a clunking sound...
The dexta manual says to make sure the start motor has 'good earth'. I dont have any earth cable coming out of the device and attached to the frame, which I think is logical since it itself is attached to the frame. Should there be one? Is there an electrical component in the start motor that is sensitive to a short circuit event occuring at the front of the tractor?

[Emiel]

Hello Lost,

Earthing of the starter is indeed via the mounting to the block and not via an cable.

You could try to run a wire from the battery to the starter directly, without using the solenoid. When it starts, then your solenoid is defect. When it does noting, you should check your starter.

Please make sure your tractor is NOT in gear when playing around with the starter without being on the seat.


Best regards

Emiel

[Lost in Sweden]

I tried this and with no result. Again, does anybody know if the start motor is sensitive to a grounding event somewhere else on the tractor (front end in this case)? Any electrical bits inside that I should check?

[Brian]

Burnout of the lights would not affect the starter however the lights and everything else on the tractor feeds from the "A" terminal on the regulator.

The starter won't "clunk" as it is engaged with the starter lever. This pushes a switch on the top which switches on the main power via the solenoid.

You could try taking a wire from the live side of the battery to the small wire in the solenoid and seeing if it causes the starter to turn. If it does not, and if you can't here the solenoid clicking, then you could have no power to the solenoid from the battery. Try this before stripping out too much wireing.

If the starter turns, you can push down the starting lever and touch your wire on the solenoid to get started to move the tractor if needed. If not, the fault is in the wire going to the switch on the top of the starter or in the switch itself. You could also need to work backwards to the ignition switch and from there back to the regulator.

Make sure the tractor is not in gear when trying these things.

[Lost in Sweden]

Thanks for your advice. The problem turned out to be something completely different. By law a circuit breaker is attached between the + battery terminal and the ground. When I had my little fire involving the front lights, I used it, and then when the time was right I set it back again. After that I found I had lights, but my solenoid would not work, nor the start motor itself. After a while of messing about, the lights did not work either! Finally I spotted the circuit breaker and decided to look inside. Sure enough it was a mess inside. After cleaning, it worked, my solenoid, the lights and my start motor!