601 Starter issue

twernest

New User
My 601 Ford Workhorse Tractor was running great. Bought it used last summer. Used it all summer long with no issues. Went to hop on it a week later to mow and it would not turn over. Checked the battery and it was good but charged it up anyway. Then tried again and nothing. Tried jumping it right on the starter, bypassing the solenoid, still nothing. Pulled starter, put charger pack right on starter, nothing. Positive on the bolt and negative on the frame.

Ordered new starter, SAME ISSUE! Could it really be a bad starter straight from Yesterday's Tractor? I have verified that the solenoid works fine. I have used a fully charged battery with good and clean connections, also used a charged up porto-pack battery booster and tried a charger direct to it. Nothing works. Any ideas would be appreciated...
 
Take the starter to a starter shop or even Autozone and they should be able to bench test it for you. If your old starter was an original I'd much rather have it rebuilt than buy a replacement.
 
Yes, a new starter can be bad. Do not take it apart. Do not take it to a shop. Contact Yesterday's Tractor before doing anything. If you open it up, it's yours.
 
(quoted from post at 09:58:04 12/29/20) Yes, a new starter can be bad. Do not take it apart. Do not take it to a shop. Contact Yesterday's Tractor before doing anything. If you open it up, it's yours.

Yes and thank you. I already have and they are sending me a new one. Just so frustrating because I literally spent a ton of time triple checking everything to make sure I was not doing something wrong. I will update when the new one arrives.
 

Good info thanks. I still have the old one and could have it rebuilt but interesting enough, when I sent Yesterday's Tractor a picture of both to validate it was the correct starter, here is what the guy said. "It has the newer style drive with the enclosed torsion spring. They don't fly apart when the spring breaks."

This being said, should I NOT have the old one rebuilt? What are your thoughts?
 

I was trying to upload the picture but every time I attach a pic, i get this message.

"We are sorry, your post contained one or more words that are restricted due to either YT User Community standards or are common indicators of spamming, cracking, or spambot activity. This was most likely accidental but for obvious reasons, the list of such words cannot be published. Please press back arrow and remove any obvious words or unusual character sequences that would not normally occur in speech."

Any idea why?
 
The OEM starters are much better than the aftermarket starters but having one properly rebuilt will cost twice as much as one of the junk ones (before shipping) unless you have a rebuilder nearby.

Your call.

The starter drives are separate and apart from the starter motor though (all?) aftermarket starters include a new posi-drive starter drive.

Dean
 
There is a member who posts here who might rebuild your starter if you ship it to him in MN.

Dean
 
Might sound crazy to ask this, but are you sure the cables you are using to test the starters off the tractor are good cables?? That's the
one thing that is consistent with both starters.
 

Fair question thanks for asking. I actually replaced those cables with new ones back in June when I replaced the battery. Im slowly restoring this bad boy one part at a time. Lol For what its worth, when I attempted to bench test the starter with a battery, I used jumper cables, cable size 1 AWG connected to a battery in my pickup truck. I also bench tested with a power pack jumper battery. Nothing worked.
 
I'm thinking like phil(va) .Your problem is still "in house" Do you have a test light? Hock jumper cables from battery direct to the starter post(OUT OF
GEAR PLEASE)Does a test light light at the starter post? Likewise with the tractor battery and electrical system!!
 
(quoted from post at 17:46:31 12/29/20) I'm thinking like phil(va) .Your problem is still "in house" Do you have a test light? Hock jumper cables from battery direct to the starter post(OUT OF
GEAR PLEASE)Does a test light light at the starter post? Likewise with the tractor battery and electrical system!!

No test light. I used a volt meter. I have a solid 12VDC at the connection on the starter.
 
I had a very similar problem with a Ford 640. It turned out to be a bad cable from the battery to the solenoid. The cable had enough of a connection to deliver
12v to the solenoid, but could not pass enough current to pull in the solenoid or the starter. The cable looked fine--no corrosion, clean connections to the
battery and solenoid--but something evidently was bad inside one of the connectors on the cable ends. I finally figured things out by doing voltage drop tests
at the connectors. Do a search for that technique here on YT if not familiar with it.
 
OEM starter and battery cables are the best also. If you look at them they are perfectly soldered at the cable ends leaving no room for heat loss there.
 
I have a solid 12VDC at the connection on the starter.

Voltage does not turn the starter. It is amperage that does that. When you say that you jump the battery directly to the starter I assume that you mean the hot connection. What about the ground connection from them battery? Are you jumping that directly to the body of the starter as well? If not, the problem could be a dirty or bad ground connection, either where the starter is bolted to the engine or the negative battery cable itself or a dirty or bad connection wherever that cable is grounded.
 
Sounds like a grounding issue to me. Check out the grounding cable on the battery ground. Make sure it is clean, tight, and continuous.
 
Oh, by the way, I hate being "that guy" but:
mvphoto70296.jpg
 

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