Ran well and then..

[Russell King]

Have you done any of the suggested things to bypass the wiring harness to see what happens?

AND if you do this be sure to install an inline fuse in the new wire (near the positive battery terminal). I would use a 10 amp fuse

 

[Tx Jim]

Have you checked/cleaned/tightened all 4 battery cable connections??

 

[ventiman]

Have you checked/cleaned/tightened all 4 battery cable connections??

Yes..
Had a neighbor come down. He's a little handy himself as we were chatting He said well I'll take a peek.

He grabbed the old negative cable told me to keep turning on the ignition to see if you see anything He hooked it up to the or just held it to the negative terminal on the battery

And just randomly tried to find something on the frame to see if I was getting juice to oil lamp and before we knew it he found one and believe me it wasn't exactly clean and pristine where he had it.
So we discovered it it's a grounding issue.
He said well the way you got it hooked up it looks like it should start up yours is a lot cleaner looking and where I had it touching.
So today I unhook my ground cable got my grinder and made sure everything was metal and then re bolted it back on to the frame where I had it.
Same issue no power not getting any ground So I did what he did and what do you know I get good contact.
So I just decided to rub off some of the rust and there was a small hole big enough for a bolt small bolt on the battery tray All the bolts and nuts I was using were stainless steel I get it hooked up what do you know Good contact and voila I was able to get the tractor started.

But the hole that I put the bolt in isn't exactly pristine and clean and blah blah blah.
I wire brush some rust off to make it look a little better but that was about it.

It made no sense to me.
But it's running and I was able to do a little bit of mowing.

 

[Tx Jim]

Congratulations on your repair & thanks for updating your thread.

 

[Russell King]

Yes..
Had a neighbor come down. He's a little handy himself as we were chatting He said well I'll take a peek.

He grabbed the old negative cable told me to keep turning on the ignition to see if you see anything He hooked it up to the or just held it to the negative terminal on the battery

And just randomly tried to find something on the frame to see if I was getting juice to oil lamp and before we knew it he found one and believe me it wasn't exactly clean and pristine where he had it.
So we discovered it it's a grounding issue.
He said well the way you got it hooked up it looks like it should start up yours is a lot cleaner looking and where I had it touching.
So today I unhook my ground cable got my grinder and made sure everything was metal and then re bolted it back on to the frame where I had it.
Same issue no power not getting any ground So I did what he did and what do you know I get good contact.
So I just decided to rub off some of the rust and there was a small hole big enough for a bolt small bolt on the battery tray All the bolts and nuts I was using were stainless steel I get it hooked up what do you know Good contact and voila I was able to get the tractor started.

But the hole that I put the bolt in isn't exactly pristine and clean and blah blah blah.
I wire brush some rust off to make it look a little better but that was about it.

It made no sense to me.
But it's running and I was able to do a little bit of mowing.

The problem is (probably) a poor electrical path between the old ground point and the wiring harness grounds. Where you attached it has a better ground path obviously but will probably fail over time.

You can improve the ground path to the starter by attaching a ground strap to the starter mounting bolt and the other end of the new ground could be connected to the existing ground cable or to the battery ground terminal directly. You might also look at where the wiring harness under the dash is grounded and run a direct ground wire (same or slightly larger gauge) betwee the terminal and the battery negative point.

Glad you got it figured out and reported back the resolution!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Service centers ate no help
Glady sell ya L185 parts. But ohh we don't wanna touch the Japanese model. LOL

It's not that they don't want to, they will lose their dealers license if they were to sell you parts or offer service knowing it's a Grey market tractor.

There is quite a few articles about the grey market tractors.

https://www.kubotausa.com/gray-market-tractors

 

[ventiman]

The problem is (probably) a poor electrical path between the old ground point and the wiring harness grounds. Where you attached it has a better ground path obviously but will probably fail over time.

You can improve the ground path to the starter by attaching a ground strap to the starter mounting bolt and the other end of the new ground could be connected to the existing ground cable or to the battery ground terminal directly. You might also look at where the wiring harness under the dash is grounded and run a direct ground wire (same or slightly larger gauge) betwee the terminal and the battery negative point.

Glad you got it figured out and reported back the resolution!

I had made a new ground path below the battery tray. New hole clean metal etc.

Obviously it never had good success there It was only by my neighbor.
Using the old black cable that found different places.

And they were far from pristine.
So where it's at now is on the battery tray there's already a hole there so I used it.
Wire brush some of the rust.etc But that was it and it's had good contact there since.
He did say it wouldn't hurt probably to add another ground path as a backup.

 

[Russell King]

That hole in the battery tray may have been a drain hole? So please be sure there is some type of drain hole in the battery tray or it could rust to pieces from battery acid and water sitting in it.

Again glad you are up and running again.

 

[ventiman]

That hole in the battery tray may have been a drain hole? So please be sure there is some type of drain hole in the battery tray or it could rust to pieces from battery acid and water sitting in it.



Again glad you are up and running again.

The hole is not on the bottom It's on the side. I wouldn't exactly call the battery tray watertight so after all these years.
That's never been an issue.

Rust has been a part of the color scheme ever since the day it was purchased used off a car lot in mid 80s

 

[ventiman]

LoL. Well im ordering a new oil sending unit.
Noticed the oil light comes on after warm up or not goes out at all. Even with new oil change and 2 qts of Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer.
Its the original unit.
Get one now before They're discontinued.

 

[chim]

When making connections it nice to get clean bare metal and an antioxidant like Penetrox, Cu-Al Aid or the like.

 

[ventiman]

When making connections it nice to get clean bare metal and an antioxidant like Penetrox, Cu-Al Aid or the like.

The original was welded on.
But the cable was nor looking good it was a bare ground strap. If i kept it as it was may never had to go down this rabbit hole.

 

[ventiman]

The original was welded on.
But the cable was nor looking good it was a bare ground strap. If i kept it as it was may never had to go down this rabbit hole.