dieselfuelonly
Gold Member
OK, so most of you have read or at least seen my thread asking about how to remove the steering wheel on my Yanmar. This is because my idiot lights stopped working and the problem is up in the dash, something is broken and the electricity is not flowing.
Anyway, I talked with my dad today and he said that at one point he had a steering wheel puller and it should be buried in one of my toolboxes. I looked through everything and could not find one. I soaked it with WD40, put the nut back on, and banged and lifted with everything I had but I have a feeling that sucker is rusted on there good and it would take a puller to get it off. I looked at my phone and it was 4:40 and NAPA would be closing in 20 minutes so I would not be able to go out there and see if they had one.
So, I start thinking of other ways I could solve this problem. In one of my little drawers of electrical stuff was a panel for a bilge pump switch for a boat. It had a fuse holder, a 3-way switch, and a little red light. The light I liked because it had a holder that would press against one side of the panel and the red lens would hold steady agains the other side, which made it stay in place. This was the light that I had been using to test the idiot light wiring with.
So, I started messing with the voltmeter to make 100% sure that I knew which wire was positive and which wires were negative on the tractor. I wired something up that looks (sort of) like what is in the attached picture.
It works in the following way:
I cut the plug that contained the 3 wires that go to the idiot light hookup in the dash off leaving room to re-strip and re-attach the plug when I do get the time and tools to fix the idiot lights.
So, then I took the light off of the bilge pump panel. I found a neat little clip that drove a metal piece down into 2 wires letting you combine them into one or split them into 2. I took this piece and ran the negative wire coming off of the light through it, then placed another wire into the second slot and used some pliers to drive the metal piece through the two wires. I put flat connectors on the end of these wires and the positive wire that came out of the switch. On the wires on the tractor that I clipped the plug off of, I put on the little flat connectors that the flat connectors on the light harness that I made would slide in to. (Sorry I am not using any correct terminology here, I just... know how it works... sort of).
So, I hooked everything up and was testing it. Seemed to work good. The way it will work (I assume) is that when I start the tractor the light will be on at first until the oil pressure comes up. Once the oil pressure is up the light will shut off because the water temperature sender only activates the light if the tractor overheats. During normal operation the light should stay off. If for some reason the light does come on, I will at least know to shut the tractor OFF. Even in one of those once-in-a-million situations if I happened to lose both oil pressure and overheat at the same time, the light should function correctly.
I was testing the light to make sure it worked good with both the senders "sending", and it worked good. But that required me to take the wire off of the water temperature sender. When I was putting it back on I felt a cold fluid on my fingers. I smelled it and it was diesel fuel. After looking around for a minute I noticed that the fuel line that keeps the thermostart tank filled (on the injector side, not back to the tank) was cracked and when my hand touched it I opened up the crack and the fuel flowed out. So I never even got to fire the tractor up.
And the "best" part is that now I am going to have to go to NAPA anyway to get some fuel line, and so if they have a steering wheel puller I will be in a position to buy one anyway. All that work for nothing I guess, though if this little light does function correctly I may use it for the time being because I plan to put some gauges on my little Yanmar in the future.
Anyway, just wanted to rant a little/explain. I have to admit I was kind of proud of myself to have figured that one light/2 sender wiring thing out myself, though I'd be willing to be that everyone else here would have at least been able to think of if (probably not stupid enough to try it like me
), and then I see the fuel line leaking and never got to fire up the tractor to test it out.
Oh well, just another day...
Anyway, I talked with my dad today and he said that at one point he had a steering wheel puller and it should be buried in one of my toolboxes. I looked through everything and could not find one. I soaked it with WD40, put the nut back on, and banged and lifted with everything I had but I have a feeling that sucker is rusted on there good and it would take a puller to get it off. I looked at my phone and it was 4:40 and NAPA would be closing in 20 minutes so I would not be able to go out there and see if they had one.
So, I start thinking of other ways I could solve this problem. In one of my little drawers of electrical stuff was a panel for a bilge pump switch for a boat. It had a fuse holder, a 3-way switch, and a little red light. The light I liked because it had a holder that would press against one side of the panel and the red lens would hold steady agains the other side, which made it stay in place. This was the light that I had been using to test the idiot light wiring with.
So, I started messing with the voltmeter to make 100% sure that I knew which wire was positive and which wires were negative on the tractor. I wired something up that looks (sort of) like what is in the attached picture.
It works in the following way:
I cut the plug that contained the 3 wires that go to the idiot light hookup in the dash off leaving room to re-strip and re-attach the plug when I do get the time and tools to fix the idiot lights.
So, then I took the light off of the bilge pump panel. I found a neat little clip that drove a metal piece down into 2 wires letting you combine them into one or split them into 2. I took this piece and ran the negative wire coming off of the light through it, then placed another wire into the second slot and used some pliers to drive the metal piece through the two wires. I put flat connectors on the end of these wires and the positive wire that came out of the switch. On the wires on the tractor that I clipped the plug off of, I put on the little flat connectors that the flat connectors on the light harness that I made would slide in to. (Sorry I am not using any correct terminology here, I just... know how it works... sort of).
So, I hooked everything up and was testing it. Seemed to work good. The way it will work (I assume) is that when I start the tractor the light will be on at first until the oil pressure comes up. Once the oil pressure is up the light will shut off because the water temperature sender only activates the light if the tractor overheats. During normal operation the light should stay off. If for some reason the light does come on, I will at least know to shut the tractor OFF. Even in one of those once-in-a-million situations if I happened to lose both oil pressure and overheat at the same time, the light should function correctly.
I was testing the light to make sure it worked good with both the senders "sending", and it worked good. But that required me to take the wire off of the water temperature sender. When I was putting it back on I felt a cold fluid on my fingers. I smelled it and it was diesel fuel. After looking around for a minute I noticed that the fuel line that keeps the thermostart tank filled (on the injector side, not back to the tank) was cracked and when my hand touched it I opened up the crack and the fuel flowed out. So I never even got to fire the tractor up.
And the "best" part is that now I am going to have to go to NAPA anyway to get some fuel line, and so if they have a steering wheel puller I will be in a position to buy one anyway. All that work for nothing I guess, though if this little light does function correctly I may use it for the time being because I plan to put some gauges on my little Yanmar in the future.
Anyway, just wanted to rant a little/explain. I have to admit I was kind of proud of myself to have figured that one light/2 sender wiring thing out myself, though I'd be willing to be that everyone else here would have at least been able to think of if (probably not stupid enough to try it like me
), and then I see the fuel line leaking and never got to fire up the tractor to test it out.Oh well, just another day...
