Dead Battery

[jp2code]

Last summer, I bought a brand new Kubota battery for my L4400 tractor.

It sat all winter, and 2 weeks ago I pulled it out to move some fallen trees around after a big storm.

My chainsaw busted, so I had to stop work while waiting on parts which came in yesterday. Chainsaw was fixed, so I went back to work.

Got to the tractor, turned on the switch, and there was barely enough juice to illuminate the gauges. It would not crank.

It seems doubtful that the battery would be strong just a couple of weeks ago, and then crap out.

My guess is something landed across something else, causing a slow parasitic drain on my battery. I don't know how to check for that, though.

Does anyone know of a few good troubleshooting steps I could perform?

I can't exactly drive the tractor up to the auto parts store to see if the alternator is bad.

Is there a rectifier or voltage regulator I could check, or is that built into the alternator like in most vehicles these days?

I'd like to get my hands on a PDF version of a workshop manual, if anyone knows a good source. Googling for it pulls up several sites, but they all seem to be full of spam and most do not have what I'm looking for. Scribd.com usually has it, but I can only view single pages at a time, and that kills me at home on my slow DSL.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Easy. Charge battery and leave it disconnected for a couple days. Reconnect and start tractor. If it no go, then look into warranty.
I have sold,installed and tested thousands of batteries. They all fail. Some in years, some in months.
Sold many batteries, customer says its a year old, but actually its 3 or more years. You would be suprised how many dont realise how old battery is.

Check battery cable connections at starter and where ground cable mounts.
After that, if it still is a problem then we need access to a multimeter.

 

[RCW]

Yeah - I was thinking like Tooljunkie - might be bad battery.

If it was installed and not used much, may have never gotten fully charged, or it's just a bad one from the "start", no pun intended.

I had a 2007 Chevy Silverado that one day started fine - next no go. Figured had to be something OTHER than the battery to go that quick in decent weather. It was the battery - they don't seem to give up gradually like they did 40 years ago.

Since it's new, give it a good charge, and go from there.

Good luck!

 

[jp2code]

I have an old Battery Tender from a Harley I used to own. They are not designed to charge a battery, but rather keep it maintained with a trickle charge.

I hooked the Battery Tender to it on ...Friday? The LED was Red. Today, it is Green. It is supposed to blink Green when it is fully charged and maintaining.

I also noticed the fan belt was twisted on the alternator. It was still on there, but it was just twisted.

I've got a new alternator belt on order, and I went ahead and pulled the old one off. It had nicks in it.

I don't know. We'll see.

How do I check the alternator? They might frown on me driving it up to Autozone.

 

[Daren Todd]

Alternator is easy to check. Start the tractor. Then check power on alternator with a multimeter. If your getting 13.5 to 14 volts. Then alternator is good. If it's only showing battery voltage (12 to 12.8 volts) then you need to dig deeper and check your small wires on the pin connector on the alternator. Should have 12 volts coming in on one of the small wires from key switch. If no voltage, check fuses and if they are good, look for a break in the wire somewhere.

 

[Yooper]

That's the way batteries seem to go these days. Just happened to me last Monday. Backed the wife's vehicle out of the garage to work on the heater and when I went to drive it back in, click. 11.4 volts sitting and 4.6 volts with the lights on. Five years old.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

A tractor at Autozone wouldn't be the strangest thing I've seen.

You could pull the alternator and take it in the can test them off the vehicle.

 

[jp2code]

Autozone claimed they had no way of testing a tractor battery. I guess the guy behind the counter didn't realize they work exactly the same. Still, he refused to test it because they did not sell a replacement for it.

I managed to get the battery charged up to 11.7 VDC with my Battery Tender Trickle Charger. The tractor would still not crank with that low voltage, so I connected one of those portable battery jumpers to get it going.

With the tractor running, the battery voltage jumped up to 14.3 VDC, so I was thinking the alternator was fine.

I worked with the tractor for about an hour, leaving it running the whole time.

At one point, the battery light went on. (!!!!) So, I loaded up my chainsaw and dragging chains into the bucket, and headed back to the barn where I turned the tractor back off.

After the tractor was parked, I tested the battery again and found it to be in the 5 VDC range. That makes me think the alternator was *not* charging - at least not all of the time!

So, I have pulled the alternator off and ordered a new replacement online.

Meanwhile, the battery is back on the trickle charger. This morning, it was up over 11 VDC with the charger attached. I temporarily disconnected the charger to test again, and this time the voltage was 10.7 VDC

...and then it went to 10.6 VDC, followed by 10.5 VDC.

Very slowly, it was dropping.

Could this battery have a ruptured cell? Maybe that alternator is fine.

 

[Jim L.]

Yeah, if the alternator is at 14+ volts it probably is doing the job.

The battery sounds like toast. It should be around 12.6 volts depending on temperature.

In the future, you might try NAPA to see if they will test your next battery. They do have a cross reference to some Kubotas. Your AutoZ will apparently do a test only if they are going to sell a new battery.

 

[jp2code]

I wished there were a NAPA around here. The nearest one is 45 miles off in a smaller town.

Off topic: Why is there a Quick Reply section below that is disabled? Is that like a nag screen to get people to upgrade to a Pay account?

 

[Daren Todd]

It's not a nag screen. Quick reply box opens up if you click on the pen/paper icon next to the quote button at the bottom of a person's post.

I'm wondering if the manager needs to train his employee a little better Talk about a brain fart!!! I would have had a hard time keeping a straight face, and possibly laughing at the person behind the counter There would definitely be some good natured ribbing involved

 

[Tooljunkie]

Battey has a dead cell. The tender should bring it up on overnight charge. New good battery should register close to 13.2 volts. 2.2 volts per cell. 6 cell for a 12 volt battery.

 

[KennedyFarmer]

Just reading this, The battery is bad, the alternator is good. I'm currently investing and scaling up to put battery tenders on all my equipment.

 

[jp2code]

Made it to the Kubota dealership today. The battery had a pro rated warranty, so I was only out $60 for a new one.

Now it is installed, but I'd also pulled the alternator - the replacement is scheduled to be here on Monday. I'll save the old one as a backup, but run the new one (since I already paid for it).

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Joe,
Replace the fan belt while your at it if there is any sign of wear.

And as far as the Quick reply, it's not a scam to get you to buy into our this site, it's probably just a compatibility issue with either your browser or hardware.

 

[jp2code]

Joe,
Replace the fan belt while your at it if there is any sign of wear.

And as far as the Quick reply, it's not a scam to get you to buy into our this site, it's probably just a compatibility issue with either your browser or hardware.

Belt somehow got twisted around on the V-rib, but otherwise seemed to be doing OK.

I went ahead and replaced it anyway with the correct part number for my tractor from Coleman Equipment.

When I installed the new belt, I got the alternator pulled out as far as it would go, and the belt still was not really what I would call tight. I hope it doesn't stretch over time or it will likely slip.

 

[Jim L.]

The belt may stretch a little after first installation. Check it after a while.

Too tight and the bearings will wear.

 

[jp2code]

The belt may stretch a little after first installation. Check it after a while.

Too tight and the bearings will wear.

I wasn't clear, then.

The alternator is pulled as tight as it will go, and the belt still has plenty of deflection.

It is the right part number, but the belt is too big. If it stretches any, I will have to replace it.

 

[jp2code]

I replaced the alternator and the battery, removed all of the fuses (I think) to check them and add a bit of dielectric grease, but the tractor still does not crank.

Where could I find a diagram showing the path the electricity is supposed to be flowing in?

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

The clicking sound sounds like the stop relay, and another is probably the glow pug relay.
You need to check the switch on the clutch and the switch on the PTO, they are the 2 that controls the non start situation.

The WSM will have the wiring schematic.

Do you have dash lights?