Electrical Nightmare Massey 1130

[Old tractor gone bad]

If you can't get a ground on the metal of the tractor that is your problem. You have bad ground cables or bad connections of the cables to the tractor chassis metal. Hook one clamp of a booster cable on a battery negative post and the other clamp of that same cable to a starter mounting bolt and see what happens when you try to start it..

Ok I’ll try it and let you know

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

I

You may have damaged that switch when you shorted the wire, but likely something is trying to get to ground that way

I tried a different switch, same thing happened. With it unplugged it did the same too

 

[used red MN]

Ok I’m just going there now. I can’t seem to get a ground anywhere else which is why I grounded to the battery

Sounds to me like your ground (negative) cable has lost connection to the tractor or your the cable has went bad. Disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery. Take a pair of jumper cables and connect it to the battery post and clamp it to a bare metal bolt on the tractors main frame or casting. This should make your “every piece of metal shown voltage” go away. Then you will have to figure out if it is just a connection issue by cleaning the connection points with sand paper or wire brush etc. or if the cable failed. I am sure it has been said but make sure your battery connections are clean and tight. Clean for this means shiny lead, you may have to scrape them with a utility knife or some such to achieve this.
Edit: Oops, must be a popular idea!

 

[Jim.ME]

I

I tried a different switch, same thing happened. With it unplugged it did the same too

One thing at a time. How about solving the ground issue first? Until a test light works correctly everywhere it should, your testing may well be bogus.

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

That sounds like your batteries are not grounded and when you turn the key on, the test light is making a ground back to the battery from the metal.

Hook your test light lead to either one of the ammeter terminals and touch the probe to metal to see if there is power all the time, there should be.

No power doing it that way

 

[Jim.ME]

No power doing it that way

Did you try using a jumper cable from a battery negative post to one of the starter mounting bolts as I suggested earlier in post # 21, to see if that makes a ground.

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

Sounds to me like your ground (negative) cable has lost connection to the tractor or your the cable has went bad. Disconnect the negative battery cable from the battery. Take a pair of jumper cables and connect it to the battery post and clamp it to a bare metal bolt on the tractors main frame or casting. This should make your “every piece of metal shown voltage” go away. Then you will have to figure out if it is just a connection issue by cleaning the connection points with sand paper or wire brush etc. or if the cable failed. I am sure it has been said but make sure your battery connections are clean and tight. Clean for this means shiny lead, you may have to scrape them with a utility knife or some such to achieve this.
Edit: Oops, must be a popular idea!

Hooked it up and everything worked properly. Gonna just replace the cable

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

Did you try using a jumper cable from a battery negative post to one of the starter mounting bolts as I suggested earlier in post # 21, to see if that makes a ground.

Yes and everything worked. Lights came on and it turned over

 

[Jim.ME]

Yes and everything worked. Lights came on and it turned over

You have a problem somewhere between the battery negative terminals and where they hook to the tractor for ground. Did you clean the battery cables at both ends of them? If you did the cables may be bad. Where do the ground cables hook to the tractor?

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

You have a problem somewhere between the battery negative terminals and where they hook to the tractor for ground. Did you clean the battery cables at both ends of them? If you did the cables may be bad. Where do the ground cables hook to the tractor?

Ya I took them off and just going to replace them. They don’t look horrible though. There’s a plate just below the batteries

 

[Jim.ME]

Ya I took them off and just going to replace them. They don’t look horrible though. There’s a plate just below the batteries

When you replace the ground cables, I would make them long enough to connect under one or two of the starter's mounting bolts. Get them right to the chassis, not a plate that has bolted connections, those connections may have rusted over time and are not carrying the ground current.

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

When you replace the ground cables, I would make them long enough to connect under one or two of the starter's mounting bolts. Get them right to the chassis, not a plate that has bolted connections, those connections may have rusted over time and are not carrying the ground current.

Ok I will. Thank you very much. I will respond on here tomorrow when I replace it

 

[Old tractor gone bad]

Thank you to everyone who chimed in. Got it fixed up. Got a issue with my 1100 now which I’ll put in another thread