Hi guys, first time tractor owner doing a first time post. First, I have an L2900 with loader and 370 hours. Has always ran great up until today when I really need it. Ran a couple days ago and no problems. Today I went to start it and it acted like my battery was dead. So I tried jumping it off and all my dash gauges came up fine including work lights and such, but when I go to start it he starter will try to turn over just a bit but not enough to start it. I checked the existing battery with a voltmeter and it has 12V, but when I turn it to start it drains it down to nothing. So, (thinking I had a bad battery) just used my jumper cables to piggy back off my truck and essentially put a different battery on it. Doing this all power comes back but when I try to start it it does the same thing....turns over once then nothing. After checking out the existing battery that is good, if I try to start it once it immediately drains the battery. I've read on here a lot about bad grounds but my ground is welded to the frame and I have good continuity to other parts of the tractor to my negative terminal. I took the alternator out of the circuit and no change. I woukdnt think I would have a bad starter bc it does try to turn over. It seems to me that something is going to ground and that's why I'm draining my battery. Any ideas?
Help ASAP....not enough power to start
- Thread starter Kerns101
- Start date
You'll find that jumping from a good battery with the supposed bad battery still connected into the circuit will prevent proper power flow from the good--due to being hookin in parallel with the bad battery and increased resistance.
Remover completely the bad battery and install the known good battery then try starting. You can also carefully remove the negative cable from the bad battery thus effectively taking it out of the circuit--jumper direct to the removed negative cable.
Could also be your jumper cables aren't heavy enough to furnish the required level of power to turn the diesel. You need extremely heavy cables.
Please post back your experiences and problem resolution so we may all learn.
Remover completely the bad battery and install the known good battery then try starting. You can also carefully remove the negative cable from the bad battery thus effectively taking it out of the circuit--jumper direct to the removed negative cable.
Could also be your jumper cables aren't heavy enough to furnish the required level of power to turn the diesel. You need extremely heavy cables.
Please post back your experiences and problem resolution so we may all learn.
Another possibility is a bad battery cable or connection. It would be worth checking to make sure you have a good connection from the battery to the starter and to the frame (ground).
North Idaho Wolfman
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Disconnect the - ground cable off the battery, jump it right to the starter from your truck, if it works then you've got a bad battery or bad cables or connections or both, if it doesn't act any different you have a bad starter.
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Most starters do not have a ground cable running to them from the battery. Instead, they rely on a ground being made by the mounting surfaces and bolts to the engine. The engine should have a ground wire attaching to the frame if the ground from the battery is attached to the frame. This is particularly important if the engine is mounted using rubber bushings. Check to see if that is broken or corroded. Also, I have seen starters loose ground because a thin lawyer of rust develops on the mating surfaces of the starter and engine block. Take the starter off and clean those areas well with some sand paper to get a good ground.
Thanks guys. Problem fixed. I put new battery terminal connectors on my wires and that solved the problem. Luckily it was something that only cost me 3.99. Still can't explain why it was sucking the battery down, but I'll call it a win!
Glad you found it (and cheap too).
It isn't "sucking the battery down". A bad connection causes resistance in the wiring which means you don't get full voltage to the starter or from the generator to the battery so everything is low.