Bad Day for my 8N

[Hec In Omaha]

Howdy all,

Woke up to 6" of the white stuff this morning. So I fired up my 49 8N and let it warm up while I cleared the cars and front deck. I hoped on and drove toward the street and she started to sputter. I Turned around to head down the drive and she died. Now my tractor was half on the drive and half in the street. I had to get it off the street before the snow plow came a blazin by. It was still dark out too. I checked for spark using an old plug a keep around for just such an occasion and nothing. No sparkie. BTW it has a 12 V conversion with Electronic Ignition. I had to figure out how to get the tractor off the street so in desperation I unhooked the starter wire from the push button switch and cranked the starter while the tractor was in 1 st gear. I successfully moved the tractor off the street but now my starter only goes click click when I hit the button. I probably smoked it huh. I can't do any more diagnosing since I cant get the engine to turn over. So I guess it's first things first. A new starter is in my future.

Hec
 

[HCooke]

'Click, click' usually means low battery! Charge the battery and see what happens. May have been the cause of no spark also.
 

[Tim (UPS) Johnson]

you probably just sucked the life out of the battery,charge it up and try to crank it again
 

[Hec In Omaha]

I forgot to mention that I did charge the battery back up.

Hec
 

[old]

Use a jumper cable from the battery + to the starter since it is - ground. BE sure it is out of gear. If it spins over then you have a bad solenoid. Next try a hot wire from the + side of the battery to the coil and do the jumper thing. If it fires up then you have a problem from the coil back to the battery. By the way since this is a front mount do not leave the hot wire hooked up a long time or you may fry the coil but at least that might be enough to get it back to where it would be easy to work on
 

[Hec In Omaha]

Old,

Thanks for the trouble shooting tips. I will try that when I get home. At least there is no new snow predicted here for the near future!

Hec
 

[souNdguy]

the bendix is likely hung in the ring gear since you use the starter to motor it off the road. loosent he starter a bit then rockt he back tires while in 4th gear.. then give her a try.

do , however, check ytour electrical connections.. especially ground starp. remember .. both sides.

as for the ei failure.. Ultradog may be along in a while to help, he really likes the ei modules.. otherwise.. time to call tech support and check out the warranty.. or buy a new one. or put your old breaker plate and points back in and be able to use your tractor in the mean time..

soundguy
 

[Hec In Omaha]

Sound Guy,

Thanks man! The starter was cranking and moving the tractor forward when it stopped moving forward. Makes sense. Keep ya all posted!

Hec
 

[souNdguy]

since it never started and was thus never thrown back, one can assume it's still 'dating' the ring gear..
 

[Paul in MN]

With heavy wet snow plus a warm engine and radiator, you may have kicked some water into the dist cap. I have had this happen in our "warmer" winter weather. The water may follow the sides of the coil past a bad spot in the upper dist cap gasket, and "poof" the tractor engine kills. The same thing will happen if the antifreeze overflows a bit. So pull the dist cap off and check for any moisture inside.

And the other guys are right about checking the starter, as it is probably still engaged into the flywheel ring gear. I doubt that your EI has been fried if it was working reliably before. Don't put too much force on the starter if it is still engaged, you can break out the sleeve bearing in the starter's end plate on the bendix side. The end plate is aluminum and I have seen a number of them broken. Loosen the starter bolts and wiggle it real good while rocking the tractor in gear.

Paul in MN
 

[Hec In Omaha]

Soundguy,

I got home and loosened the starter bolts. I wiggled the starter around and it seemed free. I wasn"t able to move the tires back in forth while in fourth gear due to my loader bucket and rear snow blower laying on the ground. I tightened the starter back up and hit the starter button and she cranked! I tried it a second time and got the click click again. I repeated loosening the starter and still have the click click. When it did crank it was cranking really slow. The battery is 100 charged up. BTW the battery is only a couple of months old. What do you think?

Hec
 

[Royse]

SoundGuy also mentioned checking the connections to it.
That is what I would check before assuming the starter was bad.
Moving the tractor with the starter draws a lot of current.
Once you have them all clean, shiny and tight if it still rolls slowly
you may want to have the starter tested.
 

[Colin King]

The "click" "click" can be the sound of a low battery as others have suggested, but it can also the be sound of an incomplete circuit. Since you pulled the starter already, you might have introduced a short at the bell housing. Make sure that surface is clean. Maybe there's even some ice in there, preventing good surface contact.

Before you think that the health of the starter is in question, try jumping directly to the starter. Your battery may have less juice than you think.

Good luck!

Colin, MN
 

[Hobo,NC]

[souNdguy]

IF the battery IS charged and it cranked slow.. then you got bad cables.. bad clamps, bad wires, bad ground, or corrosion at starter mount.

something in the line is preventing current flow.