TC30 stalls when gear or brake touched

kate66 · Mar 25, 2012

It's bizarre and random. Starts fine. If I touch the brake, it stalls. If I move from N to M or L, it stalls. I can do this several times and then it will start working. Surely an electric fault but I can't think what. Driving me nuts! Any ideas?

RickB · Mar 25, 2012

Seat switch or its wiring.

DieselMonk · Mar 25, 2012

sounds like feather weight problem. There is a switch underneath the seat that kills the engine if no one is sitting in it. Some like it, but sometimes I go in rough terrain and then the engine stalls. So I jammed a piece of wood between the switch and the frame of the seat in the TC55DA and I soldered a jumper wire on to the switch on the Boomer 1030.

kate66 · Mar 25, 2012

Although the seat switch would seem the logical thing there are a few things that make me think it's not related to the switch:

1. doesn't matter if it's me, my husband or big bubba from next door that tries to do it
2. the seat switch shouldn't come into play when I move from N to M or N to L as long as the parking brake is engaged
3. I've had this tractor for years and much as I would like to think that I've lost so much weight it's impacting the seat switch I would be kidding myself
4. After much frustration and yelling, it will then work, and work perfectly for hours.

It must be electrical - but what????

duroc · Mar 26, 2012

kate66 said:
Although the seat switch would seem the logical thing there are a few things that make me think it's not related to the switch:

1. doesn't matter if it's me, my husband or big bubba from next door that tries to do it
2. the seat switch shouldn't come into play when I move from N to M or N to L as long as the parking brake is engaged
3. I've had this tractor for years and much as I would like to think that I've lost so much weight it's impacting the seat switch I would be kidding myself
4. After much frustration and yelling, it will then work, and work perfectly for hours.

It must be electrical - but what????

I had a similar situation happen today when I was showing the wife how to operate my T1510. I had her set the park-brake, push the clutch in (HST), start the engine, and put it in gear. When she pushed the brake pedal to release the park brake the engine would die. This happened several times before I had her get off the tractor to let me try. I had no problems! She tried it once again and the tractor died. I then told her "leave the park-brake off and go through the above procedures" - that time the tractor did not die. Come to find out, she was raising off the seat just enough that the seat switch would make contact and kill the motor. Try leaving your park-brake off and see what that does. :confused3:

Good luck!

kate66 · Mar 26, 2012

Thanks for the responses. Just to reiterate - I have driven this specific tractor for years, this is a new problem. (I have also owned and driven many tractors - so I am not just going out to play with hubby's tractor).

As noted above, it makes no difference if it's me, hubby or extremely large man next door sitting on the tractor, it still dies.

jinman · Mar 26, 2012

Kate, the seat switch being damaged can be from many reasons and not just due to the operator being a lightweight. Believe me, I have a very LARGE basis for my observations on my own tractor.

More likely is the shifting position of your weight also shifts the switch slightly and it momentarily loses contact. The easy way to prove it's the switch is with a jumper bypass, but there is absolutely nothing on the brake pedals that is electrical to cause a problem. Your parking brake lever has a switch, but the brake pedals don't unless you have an HST with cruise control. In that case, the brake pedals will de-energize the cruise magnet, but that circuit is completely isolated from anything that would kill the engine. So I am firmly on the same team as RickB in saying it's your seat switch.

BTW: On my tractor, the parking brake has to be engaged AND the shift lever in Neutral for the engine to stay running when the operator leaves the seat. I think yours is the same. The parking brake will not bypass the safety if the transmission is out of neutral.

ksshooter · Mar 27, 2012

Jim and Kate, I also have a TC30 and the engine will run with the operator out of the seat as long as the the transmission is in Neutral. It will beep, beep, beep, but it will continue running. You cannot get out of the seat for very long (2 seconds) if it is in gear before it dies. I believe the 2 second delay is there for going over rough terrain when you are bouncing a bit. At least it makes sense to me and it works well.
Tom

RickB · Mar 27, 2012

This thread reminds me of any number of truck drivers that have asked me directions to their next stop, then proceeeded to argue with the response. I tend to lose interest rather quickly.