Welded my Tractor now no spark

[OldGeezer68]

Have a old Cub 2135 the hood bracket needed fixed . no giving it a lot of thought I never unhooked the battery , maybe I goofed .I found a 20 amp fused blown and the head lamp on that side is wasted . but I messed up something else I have no spark .Anyone here able to help me out here? ~~OldGeezer68

 

[adventure bob]

Welding on vehicles with electronics is tricky. Depends on where you grounded the welder. In Afghanistan, they would only weld on our MATVs after we disconnected all the comm gear, since some of the radios were $40K to $70k. Depends on where the ground to where the weld was and was between the two leads. Anything between the two could have carried high voltage to ground cooking the electronic thingy in between.

 

[jwmorris]

Anything in the path that the current passed through is likely destroyed. The fuse was likely after the lamp. Is it a point style ignition?

 

[OldGeezer68]

No points , maybe that Bosch module or the coil I'm guessing expensive mistake ~~OldGeezer68

 

[OldGeezer68]

Welding on vehicles with electronics is tricky. Depends on where you grounded the welder. In Afghanistan, they would only weld on our MATVs after we disconnected all the comm gear, since some of the radios were $40K to $70k. Depends on where the ground to where the weld was and was between the two leads. Anything between the two could have carried high voltage to ground cooking the electronic thingy in between.

I grd'd it on the bracket I tacked the pc on ,but it could have still all run through the frame ~~OldGeezer68

 

[OldGeezer68]

well you could have knocked me off the mower with a feather I went and tried it and it started right up purrs like kitten. the guy at the shop said it's possible when it get hot it will quit ?? that I may have done damage to the coil ,~OldGeezer68

 

[deerseeker001]

glad you got her going.

 

[Shenandoah]

Speaking of coils... I blew up 3 of them on a boat years ago and it took a while to figure it out. Turns out I had added so many accessories the main breaker would trip and then the power produced by the alternator couldn't find a good path through the system. I only found this out by adding a voltage gauge to the dashboard where only an ammeter was before.

Right before the 3rd coil blew up I had looked down and saw the voltmeter was sitting on 24 volts. Too late for that coil but at least I figured out what the problem was. Too many volts going to the coil.

So if your coil is overheating or goes bad you'll also want to check your voltage regulator's output. If it's now excessive you'll just burn up another coil. The welding may have effected the regulator in a bad-case scenario.

 

[OldGeezer68]

Good thought. guy at the shop said I probably weakened it and it will shut down when it gets hot ? Don't know? I mowed 3/4 acre today with no probs Guess that a good sign.~~~ OldGeezer68

 

[ThomasH]

Nope, electricity can only follow a conductive path between the two points. If you had the ground clamp near the fix and nothing in the intervening path, the only thing that could have caused any problem is a small RFI signal, maybe 1 or 2 volts. I don't see how that could have caused any tractor or auto electronics to fail.

I suspect that you had two unrelated events, and I hope that the second one passes without any further issues.