IH 240U Wiring Diagram?

[Ddenny86]

I'm sure I am making this all out to be more complicated than it has to be. Is there a wiring diagram for this tractor? Do the hydraulics even operate electrically? I can frame a house, but this is all foreign to me. I cleaned out what I thought was the hydraulic filter, but no luck getting them to move. They were working fine when I went to purchase it and that was when they had no fluid in the reservoir. Now, it may come as no surprise that the wiring that is on this tractor has all been rigged up by the previous owner and is a hot mess. I need to replace the battery terminal cable for sure, but there are also 2 other wires leading to the positive terminal that are all bare wire and just...not done properly.

The only things that have changed since I got the tractor home is that I added fluid, and I have to wiggle the existing wiring to get it to start up. The problem has to be related to one of those things. I'm thinking it's electrical because of screwing with the wires. Maybe what I found was not the hydraulic filter so the plug is still in there stopping things from working. The reason I suspect it's electrical is that now the hydraulics won't move at all, they won't even try whereas before they would at least jump a bit and try to work. Again, messing with the wiring that is poorly installed I think has caused this issue. I can get out there and take some photos today to show you what I'm talking about with the wiring so you too can scratch your heads and say "what in the world...?"

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[wore out]

Wiring diagram link... https://cdn.compknowhow.com/carterandgruenewald/wiring_diagrams/IH 140-330-240-340.pdf

 

[used red MN]

Wiring and hydraulics on that tractor have ZERO
connection to each other. Do you frame a house
without a print? You need a manual. Send me an email I
can get you access by a link to at least one to start you
off. Where was the filter you changed located? Does
the fluid look like yellowish cream? If so it probably has
a bunch of water in it. Crack the bottom plugs loose
after it has sat undisturbed for a day or so. Loosen
them to the point where they just start to drip.

Is it water or oil dripping out?

 

[Janicholson]

If the reservoir was dry, the pump may not be primed. To get it primed, air pressure can be applied to the reservoir (about 15 psi max) then operate the hydraulic controls through the lever motion for 5 minutes or so working the air out. Jim

 

[used red MN]

JAN here is his previous post on this.
Previous post

 

[Ddenny86]

(quoted from post at 15:11:13 02/20/23) Wiring and hydraulics on that tractor have ZERO
connection to each other. Do you frame a house
without a print? You need a manual. Send me an email I
can get you access by a link to at least one to start you
off. Where was the filter you changed located? Does
the fluid look like yellowish cream? If so it probably has
a bunch of water in it. Crack the bottom plugs loose
after it has sat undisturbed for a day or so. Loosen
them to the point where they just start to drip.

Is it water or oil dripping out?

I ran into another issue while changing the battery cable (I probably bought the wrong one) so I'm not uploading photos tonight. When I removed what I believe to be the hydraulic filter (it was located on the right side of the tractor [if you're sitting on it] just below where the hydra wave controls would be if it had that feature [which it does not], very little fluid came out and it was dark like used motor oil, but not as thick. I know that may not be helpful and I will post photos of what I am talking about tomorrow. The "filter", which was akin to a fine steel mesh, had some debris on it that looked like organic material and wasn't particularly concerning and it washed right off. The filter was not changed because as was suggested in the previous post, the filter for this model is not available so the one that I purchased was not the proper filter. I will do as you suggest and crack those bottom plugs to see what comes out.

Concerning this new problem, am I better off keeping them all in one thread so as not to spam the boards?

This post was edited by Ddenny86 on 02/20/2023 at 09:04 pm.

 

[Ddenny86]

Alright here are some pictures as I said I would upload. Now you too can scratch your head and see why this is a problem.

The first picture is where I found what I think is the hydraulic filter, the second is what it looks like when I removed it and the aforementioned liquid comes out.

These next pictures are the hot mess of wiring that I get to play with. All I was trying to do was replace the battery cable, simple enough right? It was all rigged up, and now it won't start at all. Before I messed with it, the battery cable was stripped on both ends, the terminal end was wrapped around an old clamp, and the wires running from the starter and one from a motor up front were both wrapped around those. Used to, if it didn't fire up I would just have to wiggle the wiring and eventually it would go, but now I just get a loud click and sometimes no click at all. The guy I bought it from says the starter is new(er) so I don't think its a bad starter, I just think the wiring is a rats nest and I'm not sure how to fix that. One end of the new battery cable did touch part of the starter and it arced so maybe I blew up the starter?

As was suggested I went to crack the plugs to see what the fluid in the reservoir looks like and I didn't even have to. I have a leak somewhere, and I checked the hoses which are a bit worn but don't appear to be the problem. My guess is the seals are shot, and yes the fluid is yellow and creamy which indicates water. I will likely just have to flush the entire system and replace the seals, yay hooray. Anyway, here is what is going on. Thanks to everyone for putting up with this.

 

[used red MN]

I am just going to refer to wire colors of the original harness and not any stubs added on. The orange wire I believe you have figured out it goes to the small terminal on the starter solenoid. The red wire should go up to a terminal on the ammeter, it should hook to the larger terminal on the solenoid along with the battery cable. The connection of the red wire to the ammeter should be verified before it is connected. The yellow wire will need farther discussion. Can you tell is it running over to the terminal on the alternator? Hopefully you know this but you should at least utilize a crimped butt connector to add additional wire to make a wire long enough. Solder and shrink tube is the best. Back later this evening with more.

 

[Ddenny86]

(quoted from post at 14:37:28 02/27/23) I am just going to refer to wire colors of the original harness and not any stubs added on. The orange wire I believe you have figured out it goes to the small terminal on the starter solenoid. The red wire should go up to a terminal on the ammeter, it should hook to the larger terminal on the solenoid along with the battery cable. The connection of the red wire to the ammeter should be verified before it is connected. The yellow wire will need farther discussion. Can you tell is it running over to the terminal on the alternator? Hopefully you know this but you should at least utilize a crimped butt connector to add additional wire to make a wire long enough. Solder and shrink tube is the best. Back later this evening with more.

Yes that is correct the orange wire goes to the solenoid. I have to redo that wiring, and yes I know about the butt connector, apparently the person who did this work did not or maybe they just didn't have one. The 2g red is what they were using for the positive battery cable which was stripped and rigged on both ends. The thinner red wire is connected to the start switch or ignition I forget exactly which one at this time. The yellow wire runs to the other side of the tractor all the way up front and is connected to what I assume is the alternator. I have replaced the battery cable with a new 2g, and the loose wires are just mushed under the battery cable clamp, but it fired right up so in the interim, that problem is solved. I will give it some more attention on a day that I'm not chasing my hat across the field in these straight line winds.

As for the hydraulics, I am of the opinion that I need to tear apart the entire system. It's back to whining again and moving ever so slightly which is more than I was getting when I discovered the wiring problems, but it's still not moving enough for me to get anything up off the ground. There is a puddle of "creamy" and yellow fluid on the ground which tells me (thanks to advice from this forum) that there is water present in the reservoir and that I have a leak somewhere. My guess, and my hope is that I just have a bad seal set and that I can take it all apart, clean it up, replace the seals and hoses and then be good to go. If there is any advice on taking that project I'd be more than happy to listen, I'm a little miffed that I spent so much on hydraulic fluid for it to all have dripped out onto the ground but you live and learn.


Thanks for the reply, I look forward to seeing what you have to say later on!


Dave

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I completely rewired a 240 and it is not much more complicated than a letter series tractor. With an alternator you can mostly go by Bob M's wiring diagram for a letter series converted to 12V with a 3-wire alternator.

The main difference is wiring in the starter button and the solenoid.

Just remove the hood, remove the steering wheel, remove the dashboard, tear out the current wiring, and go to town on it.

You did not "blow up the starter" with a simple arc.

 

[Ddenny86]

(quoted from post at 07:30:49 02/28/23) I completely rewired a 240 and it is not much more complicated than a letter series tractor. With an alternator you can mostly go by Bob M's wiring diagram for a letter series converted to 12V with a 3-wire alternator.

The main difference is wiring in the starter button and the solenoid.

Just remove the hood, remove the steering wheel, remove the dashboard, tear out the current wiring, and go to town on it.

You did not "blow up the starter" with a simple arc.

I didn't think that would be a possibility. Granted, I know nothing of tractors or most automobiles in general but I do have a basic understanding of electrical systems and some wiring. I did get the tractor started up again. Just had to replace the battery cable with the proper cable and do some cleaning up of corroded wiring elsewhere.

 

[Ddenny86]

Alright well, after working on this thing all day today I've made a stunning lack of progress. I got the bush hog hooked up which was fantastic, but I can't get the hydraulic arms to lift the front end up off the ground so I'm just digging trenches when I move. I read somewhere that the arms wouldn't move unless the PTO was engaged so I engaged it and still nothing. Then I realized that the bush hog had all kinds of metal fence wire wrapped up around the blades. I jacked it up off the ground and got that all out. I still need a pin to hold the PTO shaft on, I'll be picking that up tonight.

I get a very small amount of movement out of the arms but not enough to actually do anything. I know there is a leak somewhere, so I need to find that and (MAYBE) then I will be able to see some progress. My next best guess is the pump is bad, since the only thing I would call a filter was not really plugged up enough to make a difference. I'm dreading having to take the hitch off and tear this whole system apart but the more I mess with this thing the more likely it seems that is what I will need to do. I did get a great deal on this thing, but had I known I would need to be a mechanic just to get the thing to do more than move in forward and reverse I would have saved my money and kept looking.

 

[used red MN]

I will have a reply for you tomorrow. Monday night I fell on the ice and banged up my left elbow pretty good. Thank goodness I did not break any bones, bang my head or bust out any teeth. Been busy the last couple of nights. I would suggest that you do not run that tractor a lot until the hydraulics are figured out, could be very hard on the pump. I assume you drained and refilled the rear end with hydraulic fluid? I am pretty sure that is where the pump pulls it out of.

 

[Ddenny86]

Oh man! I hope you're alright. Don't worry about getting a reply quickly, I don't mind waiting. After all, I'm the one asking for someone else to take time out of their life to help me out. Rest up as much as you can. One thing I do not miss is harsh winters. I did not drain it just yet, while we don't have particularly cold or snowy winters we are blessed by rain every day forever. Partly why I haven't crawled up under there to see what is going on. That plus being a rank amateur is why I topped off the reservoir instead of draining it first when I got it. Probably stirred up some sediment and plugged up a supply line or something. I will try not to run it much until this gets figured out. After all, it's fairly useless without the hydraulics.


PS: I finally ordered an operator manual from YT.

This post was edited by Ddenny86 on 03/02/2023 at 08:04 am.

 

[used red MN]

I am going to link an alternative online parts catalog for
your tractor. Well I should say as close as I can come.
It is for a Farmall or row crop variation of the 240, but a
utility version is not available. It is called ..avspare.. be
careful it has a lot of pop-up adds, for whatever reason
they list almost every original part number where as
the manufacturers parts page has some of the
obsolete parts removed. None of them has caused
problems for my iPhone but be careful. I have never
purchased anything through them only used them to
look up part numbers. Also it may be evident but the
diagrams open as a picture you can enlarge if you
double click them. The actual heading for this part section says it is for a 230 but the strainer part in the diagram looks correct. A 240 is just an updated version of the 230 as far as I know. Keep in mind I have no experience
with your tractor model, just applying general
mechanical knowledge, so it is possible what I am
suggesting is way off base. On your hydraulics I am
fairly certain that it draws hydraulic fluid out of the
main transmission and rear differential gear case. In
the diagram suction tube no. 37 is where it draws fluid
in if that nut 36 is loose or no. 35 oring this could allow
it to suck air and not pull fluid in correctly. That tube
must go into the bottom of the cast part the strainer is
in no. 16. The same applies to the filter you pulled out.
If that cover is not sealed properly the same thing can
happen. Also the same is possible for the set of tubes
going forward to the pump no. 26. IH used lines similar
to these on other models. What can happen is that due
to vibration the lines form a small crack right where
they weld to the block that bolts on this is something
to check. Also if the orings (no. 25 four are used 2 on
each end) that seal that tube to the tractor are bad it
could leak air there as well. Last is that strainer in
there just a screen or is there a filter element of some
type in there?

We will save the electrical for different discussion, for
now where does the wire that comes off the terminal
on the back of the alternator going? Does the tractor
give you any indication that it is charging the battery?
You should probably start a new topic if we come back to the electrical on the tractor. I do not know if somebody explained this or not but there are two viewing platforms for this forum Classic and Modern. In Modern which I believe you are using when someone replies it brings the post to the top of the list. In Classic which a lot of long time viewers with the most knowledge use it is now 3 pages back. Unless those viewers intentionally go back a look at this post again they will not see these later replies.
Alternate 240 online parts catalog

 

[wore out]

You might want to check out the link below and the summary below it.

''[AVSpare.com appears to be a Russian website that has put up a whole bunch of parts and technical manuals for U.S. machinery. I don't know if anyone has ever ordered from them - and I certainly will never do so myself. I suspect that the site exists to gather personal information from unsuspecting equipment repair folks who are looking for obscure parts.

The domain registration details for "avspare.com" show that it was created in 2015 by a service ("Whois Privacy Corp.") in the Bahamas that specializes in hiding the true ownership of internet domains. The website's server is controlled by a company somewhere in Germany. The DNS (domain name server) details for "avspare.com" show that all email about the domain get sent to "mx.yandex.ru" - a Russian email server. The DNS servers themselves are virtual servers provided by "cloudflare.com" which means they could be run by anybody from anywhere. Just about everything about "avspare.com" is suspicious.

Bottom line: Be very careful (paranoid) about using the "avspare.com" website. Have your computer's and browser's antivirus settings set as high as possible if/when you visit. If you do "register" consider using fake identification and a temporary, disposable email address.

____________________________________________________
DNS details

09/04/17 16:42:20 dns avspare.com
Mail for avspare.com is handled by mx.yandex.net mx.yandex.ru
Canonical name: avspare.com
Addresses:
213.136.88.143''

 

[used red MN]

To the OP I do not think that website is total doomsday material but suit yourself I have had no problems with it. If an add pops up just close it.
Wore out, I appreciate your concern for your fellow YT members. I warned him to beware so I felt that was sufficient. I post mostly from an iPhone, their anti-virus, scam prevention software, firewall whatever you want to call it are fairly robust. I have never had an issue with avspare, sure when you click a link there, mainly just coming into the page it pops open an add, but they can simply be closed. Lately the adds are for Amazon offers in some cases. That is how they fund their page and or profit by showing the number of ..ad views.. they provide in a day etc. I think as long as you stay out of any of their ..click bate.. you are fine, or at least that has been my experience. I do also occasionally use an older laptop with Windows 7 and using Firefox browser. I do not have a lot of important stuff on that laptop and I backup documents etc. that are important. I have it setting right now with a tab open to avspare, no problems. On the ..other side of the fence.. here is a recent post on YT that the poster reported a good experience using avspare to actually purchase a wiring harness through them, see 2nd to last reply on the first page.
https://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/viewtopic.php?t=1605373
Totally unrelated to avspare, I did some years ago while looking for info on Massey 1080 Hydraulics find a download for info off a CD a knowledgeable individual on Masseys had put together. I got fooled by a clickable link to a ..download tool.. it did not take long and soon when I opened a web page pop up adds came in so heavy from all sides of the screen that doing anything useful on the page was useless. My son had to reload the whole OS to clean that out of it, it is his old laptop.

 

[wore out]

I admit I've used the site myself, and at my own risk, but I certainly wouldn't suggest to anyone else to go there.

I mean WHAT could go wrong? LOL!

''appears to be a Russian website''

''("Whois Privacy Corp.") in the Bahamas that specializes in hiding the true ownership of internet domains''

''all email about the domain get sent to "mx.yandex.ru" - a Russian email server''

''servers themselves are virtual servers provided by "cloudflare.com" which means they could be run by anybody from anywhere.''

''Just about everything about "avspare.com" is suspicious.''

 

[Ddenny86]

(quoted from post at 13:35:50 03/03/23) I am going to link an alternative online parts catalog for
your tractor. Well I should say as close as I can come.
It is for a Farmall or row crop variation of the 240, but a
utility version is not available. It is called ..avspare.. be
careful it has a lot of pop-up adds, for whatever reason
they list almost every original part number where as
the manufacturers parts page has some of the
obsolete parts removed. None of them has caused
problems for my iPhone but be careful. I have never
purchased anything through them only used them to
look up part numbers. Also it may be evident but the
diagrams open as a picture you can enlarge if you
double click them. The actual heading for this part section says it is for a 230 but the strainer part in the diagram looks correct. A 240 is just an updated version of the 230 as far as I know. Keep in mind I have no experience
with your tractor model, just applying general
mechanical knowledge, so it is possible what I am
suggesting is way off base. On your hydraulics I am
fairly certain that it draws hydraulic fluid out of the
main transmission and rear differential gear case. In
the diagram suction tube no. 37 is where it draws fluid
in if that nut 36 is loose or no. 35 oring this could allow
it to suck air and not pull fluid in correctly. That tube
must go into the bottom of the cast part the strainer is
in no. 16. The same applies to the filter you pulled out.
If that cover is not sealed properly the same thing can
happen. Also the same is possible for the set of tubes
going forward to the pump no. 26. IH used lines similar
to these on other models. What can happen is that due
to vibration the lines form a small crack right where
they weld to the block that bolts on this is something
to check. Also if the orings (no. 25 four are used 2 on
each end) that seal that tube to the tractor are bad it
could leak air there as well. Last is that strainer in
there just a screen or is there a filter element of some
type in there?

We will save the electrical for different discussion, for
now where does the wire that comes off the terminal
on the back of the alternator going? Does the tractor
give you any indication that it is charging the battery?
You should probably start a new topic if we come back to the electrical on the tractor. I do not know if somebody explained this or not but there are two viewing platforms for this forum Classic and Modern. In Modern which I believe you are using when someone replies it brings the post to the top of the list. In Classic which a lot of long time viewers with the most knowledge use it is now 3 pages back. Unless those viewers intentionally go back a look at this post again they will not see these later replies.
Alternate 240 online parts catalog

You're the best. Thank you very much for all your help. We had some tornadoes run through the area last night so today has been an "up before the sun" cutting up downed trees, repairing downed fences and comforting the animals kind of day. Luckily, everyone/everything is alive and well with no major structural damages to the house or the hunting cabin out back. I will use this and my new manual once it gets delivered to learn as much as I can about this tractor and try to get it fixed up. Thank God the PTO appears to run independant of the hydraulics. There is a lot of information to take in so I want to try to no glaze over any questions you may have had. The first I can see is regarding the filter housing. There is no type of element inside it's just the mesh screen. I ordered what I thought was the proper filter before finding out that they don't make the part anymore and no suitable replacement exists. I have tossed around the idea of rebuilding the pump should it be needed, I think I can find the rebuild kits online for about $250 as opposed to the $700+ for a new pump. Hopefully it won't be needed but we will see.

Absolute worst case, I will have to disable the entire system and figure out a way to rig the bush hog so that the front end isn't laying flat and digging trenches while being pulled. My idea for that is to jack it up and bolt on 2 wheels to the front, like the wheel on the back keeping that elevated. It won't be perfect but it will get my fields cut down and I can figure out what to do after that at a later date.

If I'm not mistaken, the orange wire that is connected to the alternator runs to the starter solenoid. I checked my photos and am fairly certain that's where it goes. If that's not correct then the other end is bare wire and runs directly to the positive terminal on the battery where it is mushed into place by the new battery cable. The wiring is much less of an issue now that the tractor starts up, albeit an issue that will need to be addressed at some point.

Anyway, thank you again for your help. I will never not look forward to reading what you have to say. I hope that all is well for you and that you didn't mess up your elbow and noggin too badly. I'm going to go collapse for a little bit before supper. Moving the trees wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't been soaking up all the rain we have been getting this past month.


Dave