New Holland model 1920 dashboard electrical problem

Cordfed · Jun 10, 2014

Hello friends I'm having a bear of a time trying to get our family tractor back in the game and I would be very grateful if y'all could help us out. The gauges on the dash are not coming on, including the fuel and temperature gauge needles not moving either. The tractor starts and runs fine, headlamps come on via the switch including the backlight on the dash but not the gauges. Ive checked the three fuses under the good and have been try's to find any breaks in wires. I downloaded the operators manual when we bought the tractor but didn't see any help in there. This problem started after we had an almost electrical fire a couple weeks ago at our farm. My brother called me on the radio saying the tractor was smoking while he was riding through the woods an when I pulled up on the 4 wheeler a minute later we found a glowing hot wire running from the positive battery post all the way back to the cigarette lighter mounted on the tool box (wiring and such was there when we bought the tractor). We yanked the wires in a panic to break the live circuit and found the headlight wiring all melted and torn up, along with a couple of the wires near the starter and starting solenoid had been touching the hot wire and had insulation burnt through too. We cut out and real resolved the headlight wiring and it works fine again, and only used electrical tape on a couple wires near the starter that had copper showing. Can any of y'all help me find out if I am getting power to the dash? Thanks a ton in advance..

kirkawilson · Jun 12, 2014

If your operators manual did not have a wiring diagram, here is one you can use. Hopefully, your wiring has not been modified much from this diagram.

Cordfed · Jun 12, 2014

kirkawilson said:
If your operators manual did not have a wiring diagram, here is one you can use. Hopefully, your wiring has not been modified much from this diagram.

Thank you so much! That image looks familiar, it may be in out .pdf of the manual but I didn't see it the other day. Do you by chance know what the item/ component is on the far left of the diagram, left of item 20 that looks to b getting power off the alternator?

kirkawilson · Jun 14, 2014

Don't know for sure but looking at the rest of the diagram there are 4 or 5 additional items with the same symbol that feed lights so my guess is that it is a light socket or some type of plug-in fixture.