B7100 battery drain

[F2036]

I need some help/ideas on what to do.
If I leave the battery cables hooked up to the battery, it will be dead in a day or two. It has done this since the battery was new.
I would like to get the wiring down to the bare minimum, just be able to start it, have the oil light and hour meter.
On the acc tab of the switch, I should have a wire going to the hour meter and the oil light.
#19 should go to the glow plug coil in the dash and then on to #17, going to the glow plugs.
#50 should go to the clutch safety switch and then to the starter.
#30 should have the wire from the battery hooked up to it.
Am I correct so far??
Once the wiring is to a bare minimum where do I need to start testing to find out what is wrong?
Also what does the rectifier do ?
Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

 

[85Hokie]

you have a lot of info here.....

get a volt/ohm meter.... set it to AMPS......

unhook neg lead of battery - hook one lead to battery and other lead to the connector that was ON the battery. Make sure your leads are set to AMPS.......

set to the highest amp reading on your meter - typically 10 amps.......

once hooked up - you should see some numbers showing you amp(s) being drained......

you can take out the fuses one by one that are inline under the dash....
AND or unhook wires to different places and see which one brings the meter to zero.

to answer your rectifier question......ON your machine you do not have a true alternator but a dyno, when spinning it produces AC voltage.....the rectifier CHOPS the bottom half of the AC wave and flips it, thus making DC voltage......too much to describe but that is it in simple terms.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Most likely candidate for what is wrong is the rectifier/voltage regulator or the dynamo is bad.
Disconnect both and see if the battery stays up.
You can even run the tractor with them disconnected, it just won't charge the battery.

 

[F2036]

Today I found my old multimeter. When I got back in the house I read again what 85Hokie and North Idaho Wolfman said to do.
Sure enough I put the test probes on the wrong places. I then unhooked the dynamo, and the rectifier and put both battery cables back on the battery.
We will see in the morning if the battery has any umph left.

 

[85Hokie]

Today I found my old multimeter. When I got back in the house I read again what 85Hokie and North Idaho Wolfman said to do.
Sure enough I put the test probes on the wrong places. I then unhooked the dynamo, and the rectifier and put both battery cables back on the battery.
We will see in the morning if the battery has any umph left.

What did you do wrong?

What readings did you get ? or did you get?

 

[F2036]

I put the neg probe on the neg battery post instead of the ground cable.
The meter finally calmed down with a 083.4 +/- a point or two.
I will have more time tomorrow than I did today to work on it.

 

[85Hokie]

I put the neg probe on the neg battery post instead of the ground cable.
The meter finally calmed down with a 083.4 +/- a point or two.
I will have more time tomorrow than I did today to work on it.

Ok, I am a little confused myself!

By disconnecting the neg side of the battery, and placing ONE lead of the meter to the connector, and the other lead of the meter to the neg POST - your meter is NOW part of the entire circuit - with it set to amps on the meter, the amp draw will read something like 1. ish or higher or lower.....

not sure what a 083.4 is or was?

the meter will show a constant number and it might fluctuate a bit ....this is the drain of the system, when you unhook "stuff" you look at the meter, IF the meter goes down or goes to ZERO - you have found your drain.

this guy goes a little too deep..... the light bulb is the drain(yours will not be a light bulb)
but this is the process that you need to do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P660hTqkGiY

IF unhooking the leads of the dyno, and the meter goes to zero - you have found your problem....however there is nothing in the dyno to go bad.....a coil of wire (which could have an open circuit) or a magnet is loose. But neither would cause a drain on the battery - unless the connection is completing the circuit, it still is not the problem but part of the circuit, or somehow there is a grounded wire in the coil of wire...... A bad diode in the rectifier WOULD and could cause a drain in the system.

Tell us what the amp drain is

 

[F2036]

85Hokie, Thanks for the youtube link. I finally follow you in completing the circuit.
I do not like working with electrical things, give me some metal or wood to work with and I'm a happy camper.
Last night I unhooked the dyno and the rectifier, the two fuses were left in place.
This morning the battery had just enough umph to turn the engine over.

I recharged the battery, then hooked up the dyno and rectifier, then took out the two fuses. Just before I came in the battery had enough umph to spin the engine over,, so my thinking is that it is something that is connected with the two fuses that is draining the battery. We will see how much umph the battery has in the morning.
I need to get a decent multimeter, I think mine is old enough to vote.

 

[200mph]

F2036,

Did you watch the video suggested in Post 7? Learning how to use the meter properly to read amps will speed up you troubleshooting and might even save you a few $'s by only fixing what is needed.

The meter in the video can be obtained for free at Harbor Freight if you have a coupon code. Otherwise it is $5.99

 

[85Hokie]

F2036,

Did you watch the video suggested in Post 7? Learning how to use the meter properly to read amps will speed up you troubleshooting and might even save you a few $'s by only fixing what is needed.

The meter in the video can be obtained for free at Harbor Freight if you have a coupon code. Otherwise it is $5.99

And if you do not have a harbor freight around. .....you can get them at Walmart too! Great tool to have, if'n you know how to use and have reasons to use

 

[F2036]

This morning the battery was good and the engine turned right over like it should.
Now its just weeding out the stuff that is on the two fuses and find what is draining the battery.
The horn didn't work and the lights were a mess(didn't work/ unhooked) so that fuse is no longer in the system.
The only fuse left is the hour meter, tomorrow I will check out that circuit and see what I have.

 

[F2036]

YES, YES, with the battery cables hooked up, a 3amp fuse going to the hour meter, the oil light works, the clutch safety switch works, the engine spins over so fast the tractor almost did a flip flop this morning.

THANKS to all of you who helped me with this project!!!

I will add a multimeter to my Christmas list.
Now back to the backhoe rebuild. The sub frame is back on the tractor, and new main bushings are all in place. Pins are in really good shape. Ready to assemble the main parts, then on to the boom, I'm not sure about all of pins/bushings on that yet. Time will tell