Lucky I didn't shoot myself in the foot and spruik to her. Thought I'd wait to make sure everything kept working. Everything was going great, tractor was starting without any problems. Drove it to the garage to change an arm on the 3 point linkage and when I went to start it again - nothing. Exactly the same issue I had before with a burnt out starter. Took it back to the auto elec and yes, starter RS. Borrowed his. Guess what - hooked it up and gave it a go. It cranked for a split second then nothing. Here we go again. Same problem! After I stopped swearing I tested voltages. 12.78 at battery. About the same at the key switch. Dropped a bit at the battery side post of the starter switch something like 12.4 or so. With the gear lever in the start position voltage at the starter was about 8.9. Also smoke started coming out of the starter. Anyway, read tonight that low voltage can cause starters to burn out. How do you guard against a flat or low battery burning it out every time. Now have to work out where the voltage is being lost. It's not the ground cable. Maybe the power lead. Can't believe this can happen because of a low battery. Surely there must be more to it.[/quote]
Well, first, what year is Your tractor, or even better, does it have a VIN number readable under and in front of the steering Wheel.
Then to your problem, I am having an attitude today, and say that you most likely have 2 worn out starters.
That is what first pops up in my head.
Here me out on this, if a starter is engaged and sort of start smoking it is using way too much Power. And that takes Your battery Down in voltage. I am not you, and I am not going to tell you what to do, but if it was me, I would pop the end lid of the original starter, not the one you borrowed, and take it apart. From my experience With starters I would not be surprised if the bushings are so worn that the rotor is scrubbing the stator. It is nothing that draws more Power than this, and the starter gets lazy too. It's like having an awful flu or cold putting a huge back back on yourself, you can hardly get up, an when you try to walk Your tongue hangs out, you are breathing like a whale and nothing gets done. If you know how I mean.
This is what I would check first. Because, if Your battery voltage drops a lot, and it is a problem in a Connection it would smoke there, and get hot, and not in the starter.
Then, there be another problem, that the starter is not the right one for the engine and maybe has a too big bendix so it gets bent when engaging the ringgear on the flywheel.
Can you send us a Picture of the starter and little bit in on the transmission ?
Bill
