Battery being drained on tractor?

k mac

Have a case tractor , would not start a few weeks ago, as it had not been started in a while thought the battery must be dead even though the battery is just over 2 years old.Charged it up with my own charger and it started, next day no go again so brought it to garage i bought it and they tested it said ya it was dead and charged it put it back in and she started however followin day nothin again, it while start with the jump leads after a good while runnin but won t start again after, i think something is drawing from the battery as the alternator was just done this year, and i don t think theres anything left on. Any idea's on where to start lookin would be greatly appreciated .

cjpm

Fit a battery isolator switch and it should immediatly cure the problem as long as you switch it off when the tractor is parked up.

You should try and find the problem though, likely to be a stuck switch or frayed cable. It should be rectified. Also if battery is under a cover, be sure that there is clearence between the lugs and the cover.

5live

You could check the fanbelt also and make sure it is tight and actually recharging the battery but as it is going flat so fast there probably is something drawing power. An isolator or cut-off switch will stop any draining while the tractor is off, as cjpm says

pakalasa

When the tractor is running, disconnect the live terminal (+) on the battery. Get a hand meter and measure the voltage across the disconnected lead and the connected earth (-). If no voltage then the alternator is not working.
If it's greater than 12V then probably ok. Down to chasing leads then to see where the live is earthing somewhere.

bbam

Battery drain is easy enough to check if you have a multimeter...

With the tractor stopped and ignition off..

Disconnect only the positive lead..

Set multi meter to measure Current, (Amps), on some meters you will need to switch the positive lead to a different port..

Measure between the positive terminal on the battery and the disconnected positive lead.. There should be no current flow, 0Amps. Any current flow when everything switched off is bad news

Another point of electrical weakness on the Case tractors was in the bulkhead, there are terminal plugs on both sides of the bulkhead carrying power and signals to/from the cab.. referring to 885XL/985XL type Case tractors..

BeeDI

bbam wrote: »

Battery drain is easy enough to check if you have a multimeter...

With the tractor stopped and ignition off..

Disconnect only the positive lead..

Set multi meter to measure Current, (Amps), on some meters you will need to switch the positive lead to a different port..

Measure between the positive terminal on the battery and the disconnected positive lead.. There should be no current flow, 0Amps. Any current flow when everything switched off is bad news

Another point of electrical weakness on the Case tractors was in the bulkhead, there are terminal plugs on both sides of the bulkhead carrying power and signals to/from the cab.. referring to 885XL/985XL type Case tractors..

Remember also, assuming you have a battery drain going on, you also have a potential fire hazzard. Best disconnect battery until problem sorted and it circuit breaker switch installed.
Saw a 2006 tractor, go up in smoke recently. Took no time at all to totally destroy it.

corkcomp

start by disconnecting your battery tonight (assuming its already charged) and see if that makes a difference, also check that you are getting 14v+ with the tractor running. If the alternator is charging id guess that with the cold weather the battery is just knackered, it has all the symptoms of a dying battery