Kioti 3054 No Power Issue

[Coryduhon]

I am new to this site but was hoping some of you great guys could help me out. I own a 20 year old Kioti LK 3054 XS and have loved it. I was using it this past weekend and was bushhogging a lot and ran over a piece of fence wire with the bushhog. The wire caused the bushhog to stop instantly and also killed my engine on my tractor. I tried to restart it back up but I had ZERO power to the tractor. I turned the key, put in neutral, disengaged the bush hog and even took it off the mower. Even when I turn the key I get NO power at all. NO headlights, blinkers, caution, etc... it will NOT try to start or do anything. I took the battery out and put a new battery in and nothing. I checked all visible fuses and also the 60 amp inline fuse and they are all good. I took the starter and solenoid out also and it checked good. Took the ground wire off the battery and changed terminals and also sanded where it attaches to frame.. I tried looking for any type of interlock or some type that would kill ALL the power but can find nothing. It seems as something is shorted out as the new battery that I just installed drained down in less than a day.

Any thoughts??? Seems so weird to hit something with the bush hog and lose all power on my tractor..

 

[MichiganIron]

I am new to this site but was hoping some of you great guys could help me out. I own a 20 year old Kioti LK 3054 XS and have loved it. I was using it this past weekend and was bushhogging a lot and ran over a piece of fence wire with the bushhog. The wire caused the bushhog to stop instantly and also killed my engine on my tractor. I tried to restart it back up but I had ZERO power to the tractor. I turned the key, put in neutral, disengaged the bush hog and even took it off the mower. Even when I turn the key I get NO power at all. NO headlights, blinkers, caution, etc... it will NOT try to start or do anything. I took the battery out and put a new battery in and nothing. I checked all visible fuses and also the 60 amp inline fuse and they are all good. I took the starter and solenoid out also and it checked good. Took the ground wire off the battery and changed terminals and also sanded where it attaches to frame.. I tried looking for any type of interlock or some type that would kill ALL the power but can find nothing. It seems as something is shorted out as the new battery that I just installed drained down in less than a day.

Any thoughts??? Seems so weird to hit something with the bush hog and lose all power on my tractor..

Continuity check the main power cable from the battery to the starter motor post. You can either continuity check the cable, or just check for 12v between the starter post and the frame ground. We have seen these cables fail over time.

Hope this helps

 

[Coryduhon]

Continuity check the main power cable from the battery to the starter motor post. You can either continuity check the cable, or just check for 12v between the starter post and the frame ground. We have seen these cables fail over time.

Hope this helps

I have power to the starter. I tested the main power wire and it checked good. I can use meter and go from starter ground (frame) and positive side on the solenoid and have 12 volts. Although when I use a screwdriver to jump across the solenoid I get nothing... I took the starter loose and hooked straight up to battery and it works great.

 

[Msamt]

Sounds like it could be associated with the PTO since the sudden stop affected the engine as well as the attachment, but I'm not familiar with your tractor, but it could have impacted the switch, relay, etc (if it has any of these).
MT

 

[Coryduhon]

Sounds like it could be associated with the PTO since the sudden stop affected the engine as well as the attachment, but I'm not familiar with your tractor, but it could have impacted the switch, relay, etc (if it has any of these).
MT

My first thought was a PTO switch but I cannot find one and this is an older model tractor. it is very simple on the dash and I cannot find any wiring schematic anywhere for my model without having to purchase one for $140 that is a universal manual. My friend had a PTO switch go out that caused his tractor not to start but he at least had power to his control panel and dashboard.

It baffles me that the sudden stop killed the power to all my controls. I am sure it is a simple fix but finding that fix is the hard part. I have a new keyswitch on order also as one person said that this may be a problem since all the power to the dash goes through the key switch.

 

[Hyrb]

Do you have any safety switches? Have you thought of looking to see if anything was disconnected by brush or a stick coming in from underneath that would prevent the tractor from starting? Some cutouts will allow a machine to keep running but will prevent starting when it is off.

 

[Wilco]

There's a fusible link in the wiring harness to the starter. Follow the wires back from the starter and you'll find it in the harness. If the link blows you'll lose everything as you described.

 

[Msamt]

There's a fusible link in the wiring harness to the starter. Follow the wires back from the starter and you'll find it in the harness. If the link blows you'll lose everything as you described.

Op states he has 12v at the starter.

 

[Coryduhon]

There's a fusible link in the wiring harness to the starter. Follow the wires back from the starter and you'll find it in the harness. If the link blows you'll lose everything as you described.

the only fusible link I could find was right by the starter and it was a 60Amp fuse. I pulled it out and it checked good with a meter.

 

[MichiganIron]

I have power to the starter. I tested the main power wire and it checked good. I can use meter and go from starter ground (frame) and positive side on the solenoid and have 12 volts. Although when I use a screwdriver to jump across the solenoid I get nothing... I took the starter loose and hooked straight up to battery and it works great.

If you can't jump the starter across the posts, and the starter runs directly off battery, it would say that the starter isn't either powered or grounded. If you have 12v from the starter post to frame, it would tell you that frame is carrying ground. You may have a short directly to ground in the system, or a ground that you can read with a meter, but won't handle a LOAD. Remember that continuity needs to be checked with a load. You can read good continuity, or even good voltage, but they could both die under a load. Use a good jumper cable and run the jumper from the batter positive to the positive post on the starter, check for power.

At least it sounds like your issue is main power, and main power or ground with a LOAD. Start bypassing with jumpers until you can isolate to either a main power or main ground under LOAD. Your PTO is mechanical engagement, and the safety switches don't effect dash power. If you have no dash power, your problem is up front.

By the way, LOAD test the battery...

 

[Coryduhon]

If you can't jump the starter across the posts, and the starter runs directly off battery, it would say that the starter isn't either powered or grounded. If you have 12v from the starter post to frame, it would tell you that frame is carrying ground. You may have a short directly to ground in the system, or a ground that you can read with a meter, but won't handle a LOAD. Remember that continuity needs to be checked with a load. You can read good continuity, or even good voltage, but they could both die under a load. Use a good jumper cable and run the jumper from the batter positive to the positive post on the starter, check for power.

At least it sounds like your issue is main power, and main power or ground with a LOAD. Start bypassing with jumpers until you can isolate to either a main power or main ground under LOAD. Your PTO is mechanical engagement, and the safety switches don't effect dash power. If you have no dash power, your problem is up front.

By the way, LOAD test the battery...

I took the starter and solenoid off 2 nights ago and hooked it straight up to a battery and it spun and engaged correctly. Last night I did exactly what you are saying. I took a fresh battery and put it right next to the starter. I had the tractor battery totally unhooked. I took a jumper cable wire and hooked the positive straight to the starting side of the solenoid and the ground straight to the battery grounded on the bolt head of the starter. The starter did spin, BUT for some reason it never engaged the flywheel.......??? I could hear it spinning but never heard it or felt it engage the flywheel...

 

[ritcheyvs]

Well, it sounds like a bad battery cable although that doesn't explain draining the new battery overnight. Battery cables on these things can fail internally (inside the insulation) such that they look fine to the eyeball and even pass voltage if there is no actual load. You might try bypassing the factory battery cable with a big jumper cable: for example connect battery + to the big starter terminal and see if that fixes it.

The reason the starter didn't engage the flywheel is that you only powered the actual motor, not the solenoid (I think). The solenoid serves as a big relay to send currentto the starter motor but it also forces the starter pinion gear to engage the flywheel.

 

[DieselBound]

Did you meter out the fuses? I won't recite a recent adventure I ran across, but it came down to a bad fuse (despite them LOOKING OK, one was NOT).

Jumping the starter, you didn't jump to the solenoid (which connects up to the starter motor as well). But, this is all rather moot because it is pretty unlikely that your starter decided to die (no way for it to have gotten tangled up in any PTO operation).

It's possible that this problem was lurking before your PTO incident. I'd be looking for any disruption to wiring. If you aren't hearing the solenoid for the injection pump clicking then it's not any safety switches (I believe; fuel shutoff solenoid will activate and then the state of the safety switches is next in line before power is allowed to the starter solenoid).

 

[Coryduhon]

Well, it sounds like a bad battery cable although that doesn't explain draining the new battery overnight. Battery cables on these things can fail internally (inside the insulation) such that they look fine to the eyeball and even pass voltage if there is no actual load. You might try bypassing the factory battery cable with a big jumper cable: for example connect battery + to the big starter terminal and see if that fixes it.

The reason the starter didn't engage the flywheel is that you only powered the actual motor, not the solenoid (I think). The solenoid serves as a big relay to send currentto the starter motor but it also forces the starter pinion gear to engage the flywheel.

UPDATE***********

After lots of input from you guys I was able to take starter completely off again last night isolating it from the original circuit. I ran a seperate jumper cable to the starter and it worked. I then hooked it up back to the tractor on a separate battery and was able to start the tractor. I then was able to trace the problem back to one being a bad ground on the starter and I think my biggest problem was the original ground. even though I cleaned it up and sanded all the fittings it was still not getting a good enough ground to power my tractor. I used jumper cables as my ground and it worked fine. So I will be replacing the main power and ground cables soon and Hopefully this will solve everything. Its kind of weird how this all went bad after I hit something with my bush hog but at least I got it back started.

Thanks again guys for all the comments. this is a great group.

 

[ritcheyvs]

Thanks for the update. When these cables go bad, often just moving the cable slightly will restore function (temporarily) or break a previously functioning system. Glad you got the cause isolated. And kudos for finding the root cause vs just swapping parts (as so many do).

 

[JoelD]

Super helpful post. I might be experiencing the same thing.