Won't atart

[jd2cyl]

JD 60 from 1953. I was driving across some rough ground and turned it off, unloaded the brush from the trailer and now it won't even turn over. What I've done so far is checked battery voltage which is a strong 12v. Checked for a good ground. When measuring the voltage as soon as I turn the switch to ignition the voltage drops to 2v. I don't think it is a starter problem because you don't have to push the pedal to get the drop to 2v. I think my next step would be to disconnect the coil wire from the switch and keep tracing from there for a short. with the battery disconnected and measuring from +bat cable to ground there is no short , as soon as I turn the igntion switch on I have 700 ohms.
What else can I try.

Thanks, Russ

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Carefully take the starter switch off and use a cable direct on the copper button on the starter see if it tries. It should turn over.

The mechanical switch still could be stuck. The voltage is super low I wonder if what really happened is a cell in the battery died from some bouncing. Ran till generator/alternator turned off. Test battery with tester voltage without a load means little

 

[Blue Jay]

If you are measuring across the battery posts it sounds like a bad battery, take it to get tested.

 

[wore out]

JD 60 from 1953. I was driving across some rough ground and turned it off, unloaded the brush from the trailer and now it won't even turn over. What I've done so far is checked battery voltage which is a strong 12v. Checked for a good ground. When measuring the voltage as soon as I turn the switch to ignition the voltage drops to 2v. I don't think it is a starter problem because you don't have to push the pedal to get the drop to 2v. I think my next step would be to disconnect the coil wire from the switch and keep tracing from there for a short. with the battery disconnected and measuring from +bat cable to ground there is no short , as soon as I turn the igntion switch on I have 700 ohms.
What else can I try.

Thanks, Russ

With the ignition "ON" measure the battery voltage across the battery posts themselves, and then across the battery cable ends. What do you get?

 

[jd2cyl]

Carefully take the starter switch off and use a cable direct on the copper button on the starter see if it tries. It should turn over.

The mechanical switch still could be stuck. The voltage is super low I wonder if what really happened is a cell in the battery died from some bouncing. Ran till generator/alternator turned off. Test battery with tester voltage without a load means little

Thanks for your reply. Think I will pull the starter to test the switch as a last resort. I've been under my other 60 with a starter problem too many times. Shouldn't l be able to measure from the bat cable end to ground to check the mechanical sarter switch?

 

[jd2cyl]

With the ignition "ON" measure the battery voltage across the battery posts themselves, and then across the battery cable ends. What do you get?

The 2v reading was with the ignition on at the cable ends, other wise it reads 12+v.

 

[Jim.ME]

The 2v reading was with the ignition on at the cable ends, other wise it reads 12+v.

Bad battery, bad cable, or bad cable connection on either end of the cables. Just turning the ignition shouldn't drop the battery voltage appreciably.

 

[rustred]

JD 60 from 1953. I was driving across some rough ground and turned it off, unloaded the brush from the trailer and now it won't even turn over. What I've done so far is checked battery voltage which is a strong 12v. Checked for a good ground. When measuring the voltage as soon as I turn the switch to ignition the voltage drops to 2v. I don't think it is a starter problem because you don't have to push the pedal to get the drop to 2v. I think my next step would be to disconnect the coil wire from the switch and keep tracing from there for a short. with the battery disconnected and measuring from +bat cable to ground there is no short , as soon as I turn the igntion switch on I have 700 ohms.
What else can I try.

Thanks, Russ

u need to check the amp draw, just measuring voltage dont mean a lot. u can have a junk battery showing 12 volts then when doing a load test it will drop off to nothing. have u tryed another battery or boosted it? if the battery is good u have a poor connection on a cable or at starter . thats the place to look. then report back with your findings.

 

[wore out]

The 2v reading was with the ignition on at the cable ends, other wise it reads 12+v.

Please repeat the test with the meter probes on the BATTERY POSTS.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Thanks for your reply. Think I will pull the starter to test the switch as a last resort. I've been under my other 60 with a starter problem too many times. Shouldn't l be able to measure from the bat cable end to ground to check the mechanical sarter switch?

You should but again voltage don’t matter much other than it’s down to 2 when a load is put on it even a minor one. Hit the starter button no rule the switch needs to be on see what happens. It should crank it’s a mechanical switch. I bet it doesn’t. Voltage is good to know but battery tester will tell the tale for sure. One can even test through the big cable with it if the battery tests good... let’s say the battery tests good but when using battery test between negative post of battery and starter cable it states it’s only capable of 50 or 100 amps of current draw you have a broken cable...it actually works pretty good if you know what you are looking for. You would expect same thing if you hit switch for starter to turn. That’s a lot of volts lost for it to be much other than a shaken and destroyed battery or a cable about to break.

 

[Pete in MD]

JD 60 from 1953. I was driving across some rough ground and turned it off, unloaded the brush from the trailer and now it won't even turn over. What I've done so far is checked battery voltage which is a strong 12v. Checked for a good ground. When measuring the voltage as soon as I turn the switch to ignition the voltage drops to 2v. I don't think it is a starter problem because you don't have to push the pedal to get the drop to 2v. I think my next step would be to disconnect the coil wire from the switch and keep tracing from there for a short. with the battery disconnected and measuring from +bat cable to ground there is no short , as soon as I turn the igntion switch on I have 700 ohms.
What else can I try.

Thanks, Russ

Disconnect all cable ends. Clean the battery posts and the cable ends. Reinstall and tighten cable ends and see if it will crank.

 

[NoDakInMN]

What is "a strong 12 volts"? A battery should read around 13.5 volts.

 

[Tx Jim]

What is "a strong 12 volts"? A battery should read around 13.5 volts.

13.5volts ????? I sure thought in the past that I've checked batteries in the 12.5-12.7 volt range that started engines just fine. But it's been several yrs since I needed to check battery voltage.

 

[JMOR]

What is "a strong 12 volts"? A battery should read around 13.5 volts.

No 13.5v unless it is being charged at time of measurement. 12.4v for static stand alone battery, off charge for hour or so.

 

[jd2cyl]

JD 60 from 1953. I was driving across some rough ground and turned it off, unloaded the brush from the trailer and now it won't even turn over. What I've done so far is checked battery voltage which is a strong 12v. Checked for a good ground. When measuring the voltage as soon as I turn the switch to ignition the voltage drops to 2v. I don't think it is a starter problem because you don't have to push the pedal to get the drop to 2v. I think my next step would be to disconnect the coil wire from the switch and keep tracing from there for a short. with the battery disconnected and measuring from +bat cable to ground there is no short , as soon as I turn the igntion switch on I have 700 ohms.
What else can I try.

Thanks, Russ

Well I hate to admit it but it was the battery cables, how many times have I read on here to check the cables. Guess it is just my nature to suspect the worst, most troublesome, time consuming fix to a problem.
Thanks to all who responded
Russs

 

[Jim.ME]

Well I hate to admit it but it was the battery cables, how many times have I read on here to check the cables. Guess it is just my nature to suspect the worst, most troublesome, time consuming fix to a problem.
Thanks to all who responded
Russs

Glad you found it. 12+ volts dropping to 2 volts by just turning the switch on pretty much pointed to cable or battery issues.

Try to start with the KISS theory, much cheaper to rule those things out first, not thinking about the worst case scenario until it is diagnosed.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Glad too thanks for telling us how it turned out!

 

[wore out]

Well I hate to admit it but it was the battery cables, how many times have I read on here to check the cables. Guess it is just my nature to suspect the worst, most troublesome, time consuming fix to a problem.
Thanks to all who responded
Russs

Glad to hear you got it running!

NOW you know why I wanted you to check the voltage across to battery posts vs. the voltage measurement you made across the battery cable ends.

That would have instantly shown that there was a poor connection between a cable end and battery post!

 

[jd2cyl]

Glad to hear you got it running!

NOW you know why I wanted you to check the voltage across to battery posts vs. the voltage measurement you made across the battery cable ends.

That would have instantly shown that there was a poor connection between a cable end and battery post!

I did check the voltage across the posts and the cable ends, both would give me 12+volts. Must have been just enough corrosion to drop voltage under the load of the starter.

 

[Fixingfarmer]

Glad to hear you got it running!

NOW you know why I wanted you to check the voltage across to battery posts vs. the voltage measurement you made across the battery cable ends.

That would have instantly shown that there was a poor connection between a cable end and battery post!

not necessarily I'm not saying this is exactly the case here he very well could have been able to tell but sometimes the connection has to have that minor load on it. especially a loose connection like that he could have voltage all the way up at his switch and once he tries to put a load on it boom nothing. Thats the trouble with using voltage as a test and even is the main fault of my cheap analyzer as it is checking that same volt drop BUT putting its own small load on it. Thats the path he started down with his voltmeter and why I suggested hitting the starter switch independent of ignition...granted wiggling the cables while getting the tester hooked up regardless of whether its the voltmeter, the battery analyzer, or the even the test light we choose to go about this is a good practice. With the analyzer you are checking the battery without the cables on the battery usually so step one of cleaning this area and checking it goes without saying. You are correct its possible he will see a voltage drop from 13.6 or whatever post to post is down to 12.something at that area but its somewhat difficult to to step someone through that. It is easier to go positive probe of voltmeter on clamp negative on battery terminal same polarity and check for a volt drop in that manner the reading will be like 1 volt for the volt drop he just has to know what to be looking for and its a little far into it as most people who haven't done it would consider that hooking the meter up wrong. Do for both sides of the battery and you might even be able to tell which one is loose. Or as stated above grab and wiggle. He did good finding it and reporting back!