John Deere 4110 diagnosis

[SunnyValley]

Hi all,

I just purchased a new to me 4110 with just over 300 hours. It clearly needed a bit of work, but it was the only useful tractor in the budget since we bought land 4 years ago.

I was able to drive it on the trailer with some low power issues and puffs of black smoke. It would idle fine, but wasn't happy in gear. Wiggling wires on the fuel solenoid would shut it down, so my hopes were that it would be an easy fix. I replaced the solenoid and the smoke cleared up. The tractor would idle perfectly now without any smoke. Loader worked great in neutral.

The new issue was that the solenoid would kick the engine off in gear or when the pto was engaged. "Click". I started checking the specs for all safety switches. The seat switch was reading 30ohms on a and b when seated. That is high, but it shouldn't tell the fuel solenoid to shut down when the rear pto is engaged, as you are able to run that while off seat, I think? (Haven't been able to try yet)

I decided to do some regular maintenance. The old tractor was filthy from the brine and slush soaked drive home. Oil was overfilled, trans oil was overflowing out of the dipstick tube, and there was likely a 1/4 cup of sand and dirt in the gas tank, along with a bit of water. I drained and cleaned the tank, replaced the fuel filter, cleaned the housing, and blew out return lines. Put a new air filter in while I was at at. Added a splash of seafoam to fresh diesel and let it idle for 20 minutes. No issues. It idles fantastic. I go to start it in the morning.... strong crank, no start. Black smoke when trying to crank. I decided to check the battery. Charged it up and ran two test cycles with my battery repair charger. Green light there. Im feeling like there are electrical gremlins at this point, so I pull the computer under the seat and inspect the board. No hot spots, no cracked solder. Looks fine. Next I check grounds. Sure enough, the battery negative to frame is hanging on by a thread.... literally. Gentle wiggle snaps it right off. I got it! No.... brand new cable. Cleaned connections. Still won't start. Now I'm circling back to the solenoid. It's new, but is it working? 32ohms on terminals that should be at 12.4. That isn't good, but would it cause no start condition?

I am about to bypass the seat switch just to rule it out. New JD fuel solenoid inbound. I will update when I make some progress.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading,
James

 

[RjCorazza]

It sounds like you are well versed in mechanical troubleshooting. I believe you are on the right track with the seat switch as an additional problem.

 

[D&D]

That is high, but it shouldn't tell the fuel solenoid to shut down when the rear pto is engaged, as you are able to run that while off seat, I think? (Haven't been able to try yet)

seat switch should be tied to pto switch.
Sounds like a lot of poor maintenance for a low hour unit

 

[hayden]

Any thoughts on how the engine oil and hydraulic oil become over filled? Was there any water in there? I'd keep a close eye on both to see if they continue to rise, which they will unless everything was the result of vandalism.

 

[al3]

When I checked ohms on an OE 4110 fuel solenoid awhile back I got similar readings as you did. Solenoid functioned fine and is still installed.

Here's that discussion.

4110/15/et al fuel shutoff solenoid readings/bypass

Has anyone confirmed the JD manual test values of 12.4 and .4 ohm on a new fuel shutoff solenoid? My history with failing windings is that the ohm reading usually go down as the windings short. Mine are almost double that on a machine that is having starting issues. It always cranks, but...

www.tractorbynet.com

Issue I was having back was an intermediate start condition; would always crank, sometime would start, sometime not. Turned out to be a burnt board which integrates the safety switches to the start circuit. There's a discussion of that on a previous TBN thread; search my posts.
Good luck