I hate electrical issues.....

NH 1720 didnt start yesterday.

Electrical.

Sometimes the lights would come on, sometimes not.

Sometimes something clicks with the switch, sometimes not.

Open the hood and it changes, affects the deal. Wife wiggles the open hood and everything connected fine and started right up.

Only thing on the hood is one wire running to the headlights, can't see that wire bothering it starting or not.

So frustrating to track down such a touchy electrical problem, don't know if its a wire, a switch, where, what.

Bleh.

Paul

Most likely the wiring in the hood has nothing to do with it. You probably have a loose connector or corroded one that when the hood is moved lets the wire bundle move a little and make connection. The old timers used to say cleanliness is next to godliness. That is not in the Bible, but when it comes to wiring connectors, especially on the newer rigs with plug in connectors all over the place it is very appropriate.

Exactly what John said. Corrosion or a short somewhere. Probably you bumped it when cycling the hood. Thats where I would start. A good test light and start wiggling.

If you have wiring diagrams, you can isolate it by which lights were coming on your dash.

Rick

Check your ground strap on the frame, Also check your battery connections. I had a problem last fall with my 1720 not starting, my friend ended up making a new ground strap or wire from the battery to the frame, it's been fine since. But yes it's fustrating, you go out in the woods or a field and it won't restart, so check all you connections to be sure there clean and tight. At least try that first.

I do too, Paul. Tractors, mowers and Christmas lights. All the same.

Aw I agree. Elcectrical problems are the worst. Impossible.
Ohm's Law???? I just don't believe it, never have.
And somehow they've got the electrons doing the wrong way, so positive is actually negative and we call it positive because we alwsays have.... aw give me a break.
And just ask any phsycist or scientiest, just exactly what IS positive or negative???? They have no idea.

Paul,

I agree. Intermittent electrical problems are the worst. This is not your problem, but here's one I had many years ago. I lived in Northeastern Ohio, the rust and corrosion center of the universe. My father-in-law gave my wife a used Dodge 880 sedan. Intermittent electrical failures. After much checking and trying, I found a connector in the firewall that transitioned from the engine compartment into the passenger compartment. Inside the connector, the contacts were badly corroded. Fixed up the mess and never had another problem.

Good luck finding your trouble.

Tom in TN

Out on a Magnum this morning. First thing it took five minutes to figure out I had to push that rubber plug to open the hood. I had forgotten the trick. Starter would try but could not turn engine. Put load tester on and had plenty of capacity to the starter. Hooked volt meter between starter frame and tractor frame. Meter read 6 volts when trying the starter. Hooked a jumper cable between starter frame and tractor frame, starts right up. That stupid short ground cable between engine and frame is the problem but I cannot get the bolt out of engine so I am adding another ground direct from starter to frame. Also, it melted another small ground wire in the harness. Couple of years ago, it had same problem and I had a heck of a time getting the one bolt out of frame on ground strap. Messed up those fine metric threads but was able to straighten them out and reuse but could not get that other bolt out of block. It worked this long but now I am adding my own rigging. Stupid place to put a ground strap where you cannot readily access it.

It does sound like a ground problem. If the battery is grounded to the body, move the ground cable to the engine. Then add another ground from the engine to the body, and add one from the body to the hood. Be sure to scrape off the paint down to bare metal, use the right size bolts (no sheet metal screws). Check the screws around the dash mount, be sure they are all tight. They can serve as grounds to. If you can see under the dash, look for loose instrument mount nuts, they commonly ground the instruments.

It isn't always fast and simple but the problem can be found without disassembling or replacing until you luck out. A volt meter belongs in everyone's tool collection. You can buy one for $10 that should last several years if it's not thrown around. A test light works pretty well on this and some other problems. Build a test light by soldring wires with probes to a 12 volt bulb and wrap connections with tape. Whichever you use for this problem,the probes shoulb be sharp as a pencil to make contact easier on dirty metal. The circuit must be on as in load applied. It takes two people being VERY CAUTOUS to prevent engine unexpectedly turning over or machine moving if starter suddenly engages while machine is in gear. I prefer disconnecting hot cable from starter and connecting to a heater motor or other large load,especially while teaching a newbee or youngster. While the system (starter in this case)is in fail mode,touch one probe to center of battery post and other to cable,do both + and - posts/cables. If cable is coroded meter reads between 1 and 12volts or light glows. Everywhere there is a connection,cable to motor/body/frame,switch,plugs ect is tested the same way. If the voltage or light glow doesn't make sense,think of it this way. If you connect a light bulb to the pos and neg battery posts,the light glows. Break either wire at any point or filiment burns out and the meter will read voltage or test light glows when connected between break. I've also heard that cussing helps.

I personally hate the problems that only show up every few months then go away just as fast as if nothing ever happened!

(quoted from post at 14:14:21 04/01/15) Out on a Magnum this morning. First thing it took five minutes to figure out I had to push that rubber plug to open the hood. I had forgotten the trick. Starter would try but could not turn engine. Put load tester on and had plenty of capacity to the starter. Hooked volt meter between starter frame and tractor frame. Meter read 6 volts when trying the starter. Hooked a jumper cable between starter frame and tractor frame, starts right up. That stupid short ground cable between engine and frame is the problem but I cannot get the bolt out of engine so I am adding another ground direct from starter to frame. Also, it melted another small ground wire in the harness. Couple of years ago, it had same problem and I had a heck of a time getting the one bolt out of frame on ground strap. Messed up those fine metric threads but was able to straighten them out and reuse but could not get that other bolt out of block. It worked this long but now I am adding my own rigging. Stupid place to put a ground strap where you cannot readily access it.

Click to expand...

This is why we keep telling everybody to run a HD "ground" cable direct from the battery to a starter mounting bolt.