MF 165 Electrical Issues / No Start

To All, I posted about before about having Electrical issues with my MF 165 dsl. Could not get it to turn over, thought it was the battery but that checked out. Checked the wiring this past weekend and found the positive lead from the battery going to the solenoid on top of the starter had rubbed against it and was shorting out. I fixed that issue by moving the power cable and rapping it in electrical tape, I also bent the end to keep it way from touching the solenoid. I now think I have burnt up the solenoid because I still have nothing when I turn the key. Pull started the tractor everything works great but if I shut it off it will not re-start. How do you test the solenoid or should I just buy a new one and make sure the electrical lines are no touching it????? Could the short on the solenoid have messed up the starter???

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You Charlie

Hi Charlie,
It is unlikely that earthing a battery lead will damage the starter or solenoid. At the moment it seems that you are relying on the key as your source of power to the starter. If you look just behind the engine on the right hand side you will see two wires going to a rubber boot on top of the casing. This is the starter safety switch. Ease the boot off and you should see two spade (Lucar) connections. It is quite common for these to come off. Older 165s had a switch with the wires held in by two screws. If all appears to be intact pull the terminals off and push one into the other. Make sure that they don't touch any part of the casing to earth. Try the key switch again. The small gear lever has to be in neutral of course when the wires are connected. If the tractor starts then it looks like a faulty safety switch. They are screwed into the casing and can be removed using a large pair of grips. If there is no change run a seperate wire from the safety switch terminal on the solenoid to the positive (live) battery terminal. In doing this you are bypassing the complete starting loom. If there is no improvement then it does look like a faulty solenoid at the least. Don't forget that when you try to start it with the safety wires disconnected that the range gearlever and main gear lever should be in neutral.
Please let us know what you find.
DavidP, South Wales

Probably get growled at by the real mechanics but I have bench tested solenoids using my battery charger in 2A mode. Put the black on the common and touch the red to the coil terminal. The coil terminal is usually the smaller one that is wired to the ignition switch.

As you touch the positive terminal, you should hear the solenoid plunger moving.

If you are good with an electrical meter, you can test that the solenoid (across the 2 larger terminals) is open and then push the plunger in manually and you should see it close (zero ohms). Reading between the coil terminal and the case (ground), you should see the coil (just a couple ohms but not zero).