TT75, no start

[BeeferMan]

Ok, I feel really dumb... Got a TT75 sitting in my driveway that I can't get started. It's just been dropped off, it's dark out, so I haven't been able to do any real diagnosis work, but they drove it on to the trailer that delivered it, so I'm thinking that I may be missing something simple.

Turn the key and everything seems to work, just no starter. Occasionally, for no reason I can figure out, there's a periodic beep from under the hood - about once a second, goes for maybe 7-10 seconds, then stops. I jumped the starter with wire at the starter and it turns over. While pulling into the drive on a chain I jumped started it and it started and seemed to run ok, the only thing odd I noticed was that although I had the key on, the charging idiot light stayed on.

Acts like a safety switch is open somewhere. I've had my butt firmly in the seat, trans in neutral, parking brake on, PTO off, H/L shift in neutral... nothing.

So what dumb thing am I overlooking?

 

[RollingsFarms]

check the battery connections. sometimes they might not be tight. wiggle the battery cables around some too. i couldn't tell you about the charger light. not familiar with NH's. my deere has a battery light, but it comes on only if the battery is dead, dead, dead.

 

[BeeferMan]

Thanks for the response RF...

But ok, so I wasn't quite so dumb as I thought - it took about three minutes in the light of day to spot the problem. The safety switch under the seat had worked its way loose, a quick adjustment of that and it fired right up. All of the other weirdness went away once I started it "right" - no battery light on anymore

One more question though, I got the manuals on the way, but in the meantime - what's the right way to start this thing cold? I don't see any glow plugs - is there a pre-heater maybe? There's seems to be an extra position on the ignition switch...

 

[mostly_gas]

On some of the older Fords like mt 1700, there is a switch position counter clock-wise from the off position for glow plugs, and on my tractor it takes 45 seconds when it cold out before they warm up. There is a indicator on the dash to tell you glow plugs are hot, I have a piece of resistance wire.

 

[RollingsFarms]

Thanks for the response RF...

But ok, so I wasn't quite so dumb as I thought - it took about three minutes in the light of day to spot the problem. The safety switch under the seat had worked its way loose, a quick adjustment of that and it fired right up. All of the other weirdness went away once I started it "right" - no battery light on anymore

One more question though, I got the manuals on the way, but in the meantime - what's the right way to start this thing cold? I don't see any glow plugs - is there a pre-heater maybe? There's seems to be an extra position on the ignition switch...

from what i understand, very few tractors have glow plugs anymore. i'm not a diesel mechanic so i couldn't tell you if they have a pre-heater or not, but i do know glow plugs are becoming more rare. my manual states to set the throttle 1/3 of the way up and crank. no waiting is required. starts right up everytime, doesn't matter how cold it gets. i've tried this in 30 degree weather when the tractor has sat for a couple of weeks and it starts just as if it was 80 degrees and ran all day the day before.

 

[BeeferMan]

I suspect this has preheater, although I haven't had time to dig around under the hood. As I said, the manuals are on the way so I'll have to do some reading.

I figured out what that incessant beeping was too, by observation. If the tractor won't start because of a safety switch being open, or if the running tractor is going to shutdown because of a safety switch being opened, then that beeper will go off. And it seems that it doesn't reset itself until the tractor is restarted - it will give a half dozen beeps every few minutes - forever, I guess.

Hey, one other little surprise I learned yesterday. I had bought this TT75 pretty cheaply, sight unseen, just saw pictures - I just needed some inexpensive HP for haying. When I examined it in person I found it was not a TT75, but was actually a TT75A, for what that's worth...