2025R will not crank

[RalphVa]

Battery is good at 12.5 volts on the posts. Lots of corrosion on the connections. Had bought some cleaner and protectant for that but decided not to touch the posts because it being an old (original 2015 or 2015 gen. 1) one that I might cause more harm in working on the posts.

Seems as though one of the safety switches or starter solenoid is not working. I've worked the L-N-H lever and the PTO button and raised and lowered the seat.

Working on cleaning up the posts now. Those tiny bolts are surely hard to get a wrench onto. Appear to be 3/8 inch.

Any ideas?

 

[grsthegreat]

place the tester on battery posts and have someone crank over the tractor. see if anything happens to the voltage. if nothing changes, could be a sefety switch or bad ground connections.

i have batteries showing 12.8 volts resting, but drop to 8 volts as soon as you turn over key.

 

[jsb2b]

Use jumper cables and see if it cranks. My old 2305's positive cable corroded inside the insulation and the cheap end was half rotted through. I had to put a new end on it. Another time, the negative cable had a rusted connection to the frame. Sandpaper fixed that. Finally the battery died. 2015 and the original battery??? You may be due for the $100.00+ new battery shock!!!

 

[Roadworthy]

All the above advice is good. Your battery terminal bolts may be metric given that many of John Deere's smaller tractors have a lot of Yanmar parts. For pulling connectors off batteries I've found a puller to be a handy tool to have, as well as a battery terminal cleaner. Try your local auto parts store. I don't use any cleaner sprays on my batteries. Clean up is a baking soda and water solution. A thin film of silicone grease helps inhibit corrosion after I'm done.

 

[DanMc77]

I've been picking up used batteries at auto salvage yards for a number of years. They usually have the little sticker with the month/year. A battery that's less than 2 years old for $35? I've never had to replace one. The cars usually die first.

 

[RoostersGarage]

You'd be surprised at how much the cranking is affected by the corrosion on the battery terminals. I've used NoCo spray and liquid for years, then swapped to the NoCo felt washers that sit under the terminal to prevent corrosion. Baking soda/water has always cleaned up any corrosion that was on there before I owned the thing. Once the terminals are clean, see if your cranking results are different. But as batteries age, they might still show a pretty decent charge with no load, but put any load on them at all and the voltage drops. I just recently had to replace Optima batteries in my truck because they couldn't hardly trip the solenoid even though at rest they showed 12.3 and 12.5. I put the volt meter on Min/Max to catch the low and when I tried to crank they'd drop to 7-8 volts.

 

[grsthegreat]

I use noco (NCP2) paste on the batteries I install on generators. After 5 years terminals always look new. Krylon makes a great spray battery cleaner. I use it on units that have not been serviced regularly. Cleans batteries up nicely.

 

[RalphVa]

Gotta be the battery cables. I treated them a couple times with PB blaster and knocked away some of the corrosion. After lunch, I decided to try it. Fired right up.

Ordered new cables from JD but they have no idea how long it will take to get them. Might be able to cut the bolts with my Dremel.

I've some battery cleaner I bought from my favorite Central Battery place where I'll buy a new battery. This one at 6 is on borrowed time.

 

[grsthegreat]

You don’t have to use jd cables. They sell these online cut to length with whatever ends you want. Also napa and other auto parts stores sell them. Depends on length

 

[RalphVa]

Might be able to take to my favorite battery place with the cables fully on and have them remove them from the battery if my Dremel won't work on the bolts or nuts.

 

[Tinhack]

Yikes! How did it get that bad?

 

[RalphVa]

'Twas the battery. Would not go this morning.

Managed to get the nut off the positive cable and removed the negative cable from the tractor frame. Took battery to our favorite Central Battery place here. The battery in it was a Central Battery. I do not remember changing it. Wife says we did. No record in my book. I recorded this one.

Kid got the nut off the negative cable and sold me a new nut for it and bolt and nut for the positive cable. $120.

You do not want to have to replace the positive cable. It's one of those "tie a string to one end and use string to pull new cable between 2 frame piece between battery and starter solenoid"

Negative is easy to remove.

 

[RalphVa]

Welllll! It was NOT the battery. Same symptoms this morning: panel lights and glow plug light comes on with a click. Turn ignition switch to start. NOTHING.

Have called New Va Tractor service. They will pick it up tomorrow. I'm supposed to go out in a couple hours and see if it'll start after some more warming up. This is what it had been doing before and after battery replacement.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

JD service guy asked me to try it later. Did. Panel would not even light up. Checked battery voltage: 3.7. Took out and back to battery place. They say 11 volts falling to 4 volts with a load. Battery good. Could be a short?

Brought battery back and put in place with positive cable only and on battery charger. No spark if I put negative cable up to the post.

JD will pick it up tomorrow. Should start if negative cable put on. Won't have to winch it onto the trailer.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Went to visit our tractor at Virginia Tractor to talk to the technician. It's both the starter relay and ignition switch parts they're waiting for. Not sure of the mechanism re how both got "burned". Said the switch had a significant amount of corrosion. Corresponds with the unusual amount of corrosion on the battery posts before I replaced it.

Technician has vowed that he'll find the parts and get it back to me next Friday.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

JD says they'll deliver my tractor back on Wednesday. Bill is over $800 (incl. $120 pickup and dropoff) for neutral switch, ignition switch and starter relay.

The starter relay apparently had a slight short in it that caused the ignition switch to go bad. Caused a lot of corrosion on the switch and on the battery terminals when I replaced the battery before getting them involved. Not really sure that the neutral switch was bad.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Got the tractor back, but they evidently raised the ROPS to get it out of their heads' way while working and forgot to put it back down. I bashed the carriage house gutter and wood behind it.

I'll have to put a note on it next time that if they raised it, please lower it before delivery.

My HF quick hitch is not so quick on the bush hog either. Top hook is a real pain to get right.

 

[beenthere]

Got the tractor back, but they evidently raised the ROPS to get it out of their heads' way while working and forgot to put it back down. I bashed the carriage house gutter and wood behind it.

I'll have to put a note on it next time that if they raised it, please lower it before delivery.

My HF quick hitch is not so quick on the bush hog either. Top hook is a real pain to get right.

That is a "duh" moment for Ralph. Sorry to hear it.

New HF quick hitch ??

 

[RalphVa]

Dam HF quick hitch is a problem with the bush hog. Cannot seem to be able to put the top hook in place and get it to "hook" and then allow the bottom pins to settle in. Have to get in place and then reattach the top hook, PITA.

Ordered a shorter top link from Agri Supply. Needed one to go down to 15 inches using my top link U adaptor that adds another 8 inches. Can then latch onto the bottom pins and then put the top pin on the bush hog onto the end of the U adaptor when I get off to put the PTO on. Had to use the U adaptor on by back blade, too.

 

[beenthere]

Post a pic of your brush hog, and could possibly offer you a suggestion around the "U" adaptor problem.