thermostart wiring

gpatton · Dec 17, 2014

I thought I knew what i needed to add a thermostart unit to my 3600 but after seeing the heater I'm not sure. The thermostart heater has a huge electrical tab. Much bigger than the normal 1/4" tab. Does that circuit require a relay or can that be wired straight into the ignition switch?
Thanks
Gary

JMOR · Dec 17, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:21:51 12/17/14) I thought I knew what i needed to add a thermostart unit to my 3600 but after seeing the heater I'm not sure. The thermostart heater has a huge electrical tab. Much bigger than the normal 1/4" tab. Does that circuit require a relay or can that be wired straight into the ignition switch?
Thanks
Gary

iagram for that tractor that I have shows it wired directly to ign sw terminal. Must draw less current than earlier hundred series diesels, as they fed through a starter relay/solenoid.

Ultradog MN · Dec 17, 2014

Yeah, it's a big honkin' spade connector but OEM wiring harness still only uses a 10ga wire to it. Might even be 12 ga. Someone here can verify the wire size.

Sean in PA · Dec 18, 2014

The spade connector is probably so large so as to help dissipate the heat without melting the insulation on the wire. The wire gauge in an electrical heating circuit is designed to handle a certain amount of current without overheating the wire, but in an application like the thermostart it could still get too hot no matter what the wire gauge is because some of the heat is coming from the burning fuel, not just the electrical element that gets things going.

Texasmark1 · Dec 18, 2014

My 2000 '63 4 cyl. also has a solenoid and pushbutton but it has
no TS. The heat is produced by 2 glow plugs in the intake
manifold and are easily seen standing by the tractor. The
ignition switch has to be on to get power to the switch which
energizes the solenoid. Wire size would be about a 10.

On my 65 3 cal 3000 with TS the wire looks to be about a 14 (I
just went outside in my nighties to check it) which is about what
the rest of the wiring is. You aren't going to run a lot of current
through the key start ignition switch. It would burn the paper
back that has the terminals riveted to it. The fact that you have
to hold the key in the TS position for roughly 30 seconds for it to
start glowing good pretty much attests to the low current
requirement.

Agree on the lug size for dissipation purposes.

Mark

JMOR · Dec 18, 2014

Yep, "manifold heaters" vs "thermostart".

gpatton · Dec 18, 2014

Thanks for the help guys. Sounds easy, hope it helps with cold starts. Thanks for looking at your tractor, but the mental picture of a man in his nighties is an image I wont soon be able to forget. LOL
Thanks Again

Texasmark1 · Dec 19, 2014

Well I didn't want to outright lie or conjecture. I mean the idea here is to help one another. So I felt I had to get it right.

Weather wasn't all that bad so I thought I'd chance it. Grin

Mark

thermostart wiring

gpatton

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JMOR

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Ultradog MN

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Sean in PA

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Texasmark1

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JMOR

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gpatton

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