[JDman855]

Hi all,

Having a hell of a time understanding the electrics on this one...

I have the shop manual, but the wiring diagram doesn't seem to tell the full story.

I've never had occasion to use any of the electrical controls, apart from starting and stopping the tractor. It's always used in daylight and offroad so had no reason to. After years of rain getting on it everything is pretty well seized and corroded but up until recently has worked well.

No I have intermittent problems - sometimes tractor will start then die immediately. Other times dash lights don't come on at all and there no turnover, just a small click from one of the relays when you turn the key.

First things first: what's the red button on the dash? Looks like it might be a shutoff switch... but not mentioned in the wiring diagram at all. Secondly - what's the black push switch next to it - hazard light?

Really surprised I can't seem to find a basic overview of dash controls anywhere online.

Appreciate any advice... I'm currently poking around.. wiggling wires, looking for bad connections and the like. Would be really useful if I could get a handle on which components in/under the dash are likely to interrupt starting circuit.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Do you have an owners manual? That should describe what all the controls are.

Manuals can be found here:

Search for Equipment Publications - Technical Information Store

techpubs.deere.com

 

[JDman855]

thanks for that. Turns out the red button is the hazard switch, the black one next to it is the "parking light".

Anyway... all this fairly academic at this point since i've found the cause of my problem... the good old "bad earth"!

Turns out the strap connecting the engine block to the chassis (via the engine mounting) was absolutely on its last legs, even though visually looked fine and even managed to trick my multimeter (i should have wiggled it!). Came off easy with a slight pull, probably only a few strands still making contact.

Interestingly the cable is red in colour.. which is an odd colour for an earth wire, so assume it's a repair job from the past. I think I read somewhere this is a common problem on the 855's.

Am now making my own repair and fairly confident all will be well... found a slightly more appropriate heavy brown cable!

Glad to have pinpointed the problem since it explains not only the intermittent starting problems, but also poor charging of the battery.