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FORD 801 VOLTMETER GAUGE WIRES SHORTED OUT AND MELTED

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SKFOOTER

Member
I had to tap the starter button several times before the tractor would turn over and start. The voltmeter stayed on zero for several minutes after I got it started but then went to 12. After bushogging for a couple of hours, the voltmeter gauge pegged out at 30 and finally a puff of white smoke rolled out from under the steering wheel so I turned the engine off. I looked inder the dash and the two voltmeter wires had melted. This tractor was converted to 12 volt negative ground with electronic ignition and coil several years ago. Any ideas as to what caused this short??
 
(quoted from post at 14:24:35 05/27/14) I had to tap the starter button several times before the tractor would turn over and start. The voltmeter stayed on zero for several minutes after I got it started but then went to 12. After bushogging for a couple of hours, the voltmeter gauge pegged out at 30 and finally a puff of white smoke rolled out from under the steering wheel so I turned the engine off. I looked inder the dash and the two voltmeter wires had melted. This tractor was converted to 12 volt negative ground with electronic ignition and coil several years ago. Any ideas as to what caused this short??
Click to expand...
ypical short is a hot wire coming into contact with grounded structure. Soooo, look for place where wire insulation was rubbed away by movement & vibration against structure.
 
BOTH wires melted. on a volt meter? really?

the volt meter is a parallel device. one side is referencing ground... the other side ref's your hot ( polarity .. who cares as long as you have meter reading correctly ).

Now.. as jmor said. if the line ref'ing hot came into contact thru chaffing to the chassis. then that wire would have burned fromit's source ( usually key switch ), up to the point it met chassis.

that's the definition of 'short' circuit. IE. shorter than normal path.

in a short.. the rest of the circuit is out of the pat. that means the rest of the wire going to the meter, and the other wire to ground. should be untouched.

even if the meter itself s..ie.. it's case and internals shorted.. that would still leave the one wire to ground untouched.


are you sure this is not a series device.. like an ammeter?

there is more to this story you are not telling us!
 
I stand corrected. It is a 30 amp ammeter. And the engine surged when the smoke boiled out from under the steering column so I turned the key off immediately. But I'm curious if the failure of the starter button to initiall turn the engine over points to the problem??
 
see.. words mean something....

ammeter and volt meter hook up quite differently. one is serial.. the other is parallel.

still. look for shorts. if it is past the ammeter.. ie.. down range of it as both wires burnt. you should see the contact area and start of the burn.

tell us how you have that solenoid wired.
 
I know just enough about tractor repair to be dangerous so I can't tell you haw the solenoid is wired. I haven't been able to contact my tractor mechanic yet. But I'm still curious as to what causes the starter button to not engage when I first press it down???
 
number of things can cause that, one of which is a bad starter button itself. A bad solenoid, bad wiring or connections, weak battery to name a few.
 
I took the battery off and put it on the charger last night and it is fine and fully charged. And I took a closer look at the wires. The only ones that were fried were the two attached to the ammeter gauge. They melted all the way down to where they all converge into the wiring harness(about 4-5 inches from the gauge). But my lights will not burn and the tractor will not fire.
 
Cut/peel the tape off harness & replace those 2 wires & any other that they may have burn into.
 
What gauge wire should I use? And which electrical components should I check out to make sure they are functioning properly and won't cause the problem again??
 
Believe originally #12. What components to check for shorts to ground? Anything that receives power or generates power. Didn't by any chance use jump start with wrong polarity did you?
 

I',m guessing the starter stuck and it was trying to pull 100 amps continously why he was driving it.. So it brunt the wires up as the alternator also was at max the whole time.

At least its a thought.
 
(quoted from post at 08:18:19 05/28/14)
I',m guessing the starter stuck and it was trying to pull 100 amps continously why he was driving it.. So it brunt the wires up as the alternator also was at max the whole time.

At least its a thought.
Click to expand...
I did not jump start it. And I bushogged for almost 2 hours before my dilemma occured and it was pulling 12-13 amps on the ammeter gauge during that time so I don't believe the starter continued to run that long.
 
(quoted from post at 12:02:37 05/28/14)
(quoted from post at 08:18:19 05/28/14)
I',m guessing the starter stuck and it was trying to pull 100 amps continously why he was driving it.. So it brunt the wires up as the alternator also was at max the whole time.

At least its a thought.
Click to expand...
I did not jump start it. And I bushogged for almost 2 hours before my dilemma occured and it was pulling 12-13 amps on the ammeter gauge during that time so I don't believe the starter continued to run that long.
Click to expand...
n 801 did not come from Ford with an ammeter, so there is no telling what size wires or how someone connected the ammeter when they installed it????
 
The ammeter gauge was installed several years ago replacing the fuel gauge and a new 801 wiring harness was installed throughout the tractor at the same time also.
 
What I was getting at is that it couldn't have been an un-modified factory 801 harness because it would not have had a provision for an ammeter. If it was an aftermarket conversion harness for an 801, then all bets are still off as to how ammeter was wired as I can guarantee you that all aftermarket conversion harnesses are NOT the same.
 
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