Looking for Tractor Mechanic

[Team Porkchop]

Anybody know a good mechanic in the Pearland, Alvin, Manvel area? I got an issue with my John Deere 4430 thats out of my league. Thanks in advance.

[clay4626]

1 run a 4430 baleing hay whats going with it

[Team Porkchop]

Its draining the battery pretty quick. I know little to nothing about electrical. New alternator and new battery.

[RifleBowPistol]

Get a volt ohm meter. Check to see what the battery voltage is with the engine off, key off. Then start the tractor, check the voltage again. You should have a bit over 12 volts with the engine off, typically 12.2v to 12.4v. If you get something like 12.8 or higher, you probably have a bad battery that is surface charging. Also if the alternator is charging and the voltage is down below 12v, likely a bad battery.

Once the engine is running, the alternator should be charging, at least 13.2v. typically. On something like that tractor, I would not expect to see over 13.8v. when running. Should have a low amp alternator. Should be a old GM alternator.

Now some tricks to find shorts. If you have the key off, light switch off. Take the negative battery cable off of the battery. Put a test light between the negative battery cable terminal and the negative battery post. If the light, lights up you have a short to ground, in some form or another. If the light is dim, you have a mild short, that will have a low amp draw and slowly drain the battery. The brighter the light in the test light, the higher the amp draw you have.

So if the test light lights up, when connected between the negative cable terminal and the negative post. Start disconnecting things that have power to them at all times. I would start with the alternator. Then the ignition switch. One by one, disconnect everything electrical, till the light in the test light goes out. You have then found your short, or the circuit the short is on. If you disconnected a component that has multiple components down stream of it. Hook that piece back up and the test light should light back up. Then go down stream and disconnect components till the light goes out again. Then there is also the possibility the short is in a connector, such as water in the connector or melted connector. In that case, disconnecting up stream of the connector, or possibly even disconnecting the connector should cause the light to go out. Same with a wire shorted to a ground. If you disconnect a connector upstream of the shorted wire, the test light, light bulb will go out. But if you disconnect a connection down stream of a shorted component or wire, the test light, light will stay on.

In a tractor, as few wires as there is. It should not take more than about 20 minutes to find a battery draw, if there is one. Should only take about 3 to 5 minutes, if you know what you area doing. That's if there is a draw. Look for a draw, after you have determined the alternator is working properly and the battery is good. And nothing stupid like water or anything else on top of the battery that could create a short between the battery posts. I know my four wheeler gets leaves on top of the battery, then it rains and shorts the posts out.

[clay4626]

do you have two battery's mine has two battery's one on both sides there is a cable that runs from the one on the right side to the one on the left side it could be shorted to ground under the cab you said you replaced a battery yours may not have two

[60 Deluxe]

My 5205 has the same problem. I used the millivolt setting on my multimeter to see how much drain there was, then back tracked and found that the drain was happening at the fuse block. Taking a hard look at it, I guessed that the half inch of dirt build up on the portion of the block where the positive cable bolts on was allowing a weak circut to form. I cleaned that up. First with a flat blade screwdriver, then with the water hose. After it dried, I checked with the meter again and found that the drain was at 6 millivolts. Not much at all, but enough to drain the battery unless the tractor gets used every week or so. Some day I will install a master power switch in the ground cable. For now I just pull the ground cable off when I'm done using the tractor. John Deere parts are stupid expensive so I redneck engineer solutions for minor things rather drain my bank account.