Some days it ain't worth the effort to chew through the straps

and get out of bed.

Went to till a spot that I know is a huge pain. Hard to get to, down over a steep hill and in a corner between a house and a fence. Got one pass tilled and the tractor died. Long story about why posted here.

So anyway the tractor is dead in a place that there's no way I'm going to get the tractor out of there and up over the hill with my little winch so I call a rollback.

He shows up, backs in (further than I would have) runs the cable down, and we pull the tractor about 1/2 way up the hill. He jumps in the rollback to move it forward and get another hitch and promptly spins it down and gets stuck.

We messed around trying various ways trying to get it out, finally manage it by jacking the rear wheels up with the rollback bed, packing gravel under them, and then I hooked the Mighty Tundra to the front to get him started and we roll it out an hour-plus later.

On the way out, he snags the battery box on something, rips it right off the truck (not much of a feat, rust and scale were all that was holding it on to begin with) and both batteries fall out on the ground.

We spend another 45 minutes jury-rigging the batteries so he can get the truck started, we finish dragging the tractor up on to level ground where I can get it with my trailer and winch.

Got over there with the trailer and winch, realized I'd left the control cable at home. Htiched a ride back to my garage to get it and FINALLY got the dang thing up on the trailer.

After a call to the dealer, it looks like the fix will be relatively simple, I was expecting several days in the shop and a 4 figure bill.

Orangeglow said:

Interesting. I presume the hst switch just closes the path for the start circuit, if that is the case, how is that causing a fuse to blow ? Somehow, the power must be getting shorted out to ground within the switch ?

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Something of a mystery to me too. I'll ask the service tech when I go get the new one tomorrow.

Orangeglow said:

Have you got the old switch off already ? Hopefully they can show you the short with a meter , if one of the leads is shorted to the case, which would be grounded.

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I do have it off, plan to take it with me to be sure I get the right replacement.

I just checked it with my meter and I do get an intermittent short to the switch case part way through the travel of the plunger. That would certainly explain it.