Just a friendly reminder to check fuses when trouble shooting electrical problems. It can save you a decent amount of time and maybe $. Good news is my lawn tractor is up and running again, and I only wasted an afternoon.
Electrical problems? step 1 check fuses
- Thread starter Hue
- Start date
And than to find out why the fuse burnt,I had a 94 craftsman ride-on that had a total electrical failure,almost every wire burnt.
Yea, there's that whole point to point troubleshooting thingie. Ho why bother, what can go wrong. RIGHT.....
torch
Well-known member
Equipment
B7100HSD, B2789, B2550, B4672, 48" cultivator, homemade FEL and Cab
Pro tip: You can safely replace the fuse with a 12 volt light bulb or test light while you hunt down the problem in that circuit. When the light is on at full power, you have a short. Off or dim, the circuit is normal. Particularly usefil when toubleshooting an intermittent short and saves you a butload of fuses when you are wiggling wires.
yeah I had a guy working for me once.
ASE master tech (automotive) between jobs, needed something to do, so the boss hired him to work alongside me. Figured since he was a master tech, he knew what he was doing, so I didn't have to train much once he learns the equipment. That didn't take very long, couple weeks maybe. Mostly was able to let him work by his self from there on out.
I give him a list of stuff to do and one of them was a Scag tiger cub that wouldn't start. Customer dropped it off and gave us nothing to go on; other'n it would run.
My coworker, worked 7 hours straight on it trying to figure it out. Boy it must have been a challenge! I walked over there while he was on break and seen where he was tracking a wiring issue. Ok, yeah they can sometimes be a bear to find so I left it alone. The next day I was gone on training, came back the day after and he had the engine out and half apart on the work bench. Hmm. Maybe a seizing crank? Dunno, didn't ask. Finally later that day I had to walk over and see what the deal was. he said he couldn't figure it out, all the electrical stuff checked out (ohm test), so he deemed it to be either a starter or engine issue, which no problem was found with either. So he's stumped. I suggested putting the engine back together and reinstalling it so we could do a couple simple tests. Next day (day 4 of fiddling with it) he's got the engine back on, hooked up, so I walked over with my DVOM and said "hit the key when I tell you". No current to the solenoid trigger wire. So I started backing up. Switches, nothing. Should have +12v to switches. Great, gotta be a wiring or switch issue. Had +12v to one side of the fuse but not the other. Fuse LOOKED good via visible inspection. Ohm test, infinity. It broke inside of it, invisible to our eyes. I stuck a spare fuse in it and he fired it up.
4 DAYS of working on that thing, for a $0.15 fuse. That was 30 hours labor lost. Boss said charge him diag and repair labor (0.6 hours aka 36 minutes) and send it, and he'd deal with the rest later.
We all make mistakes. This one taught me a valuable lesson, don't ever rely on a visible fuse test. Day #1 at the new job they give me a golf car that wouldn't go (48v electric). Should click when you turn the key on. No click. I found a 3A fuse and "looked" at it, and rememberd the scag deal. Looked good, so with the boss standing there and agreeing that it was good, I tested it with DVOM, infinity. Replaced with new 3A fuse and it works find. 10 minutes.
ASE master tech (automotive) between jobs, needed something to do, so the boss hired him to work alongside me. Figured since he was a master tech, he knew what he was doing, so I didn't have to train much once he learns the equipment. That didn't take very long, couple weeks maybe. Mostly was able to let him work by his self from there on out.
I give him a list of stuff to do and one of them was a Scag tiger cub that wouldn't start. Customer dropped it off and gave us nothing to go on; other'n it would run.
My coworker, worked 7 hours straight on it trying to figure it out. Boy it must have been a challenge! I walked over there while he was on break and seen where he was tracking a wiring issue. Ok, yeah they can sometimes be a bear to find so I left it alone. The next day I was gone on training, came back the day after and he had the engine out and half apart on the work bench. Hmm. Maybe a seizing crank? Dunno, didn't ask. Finally later that day I had to walk over and see what the deal was. he said he couldn't figure it out, all the electrical stuff checked out (ohm test), so he deemed it to be either a starter or engine issue, which no problem was found with either. So he's stumped. I suggested putting the engine back together and reinstalling it so we could do a couple simple tests. Next day (day 4 of fiddling with it) he's got the engine back on, hooked up, so I walked over with my DVOM and said "hit the key when I tell you". No current to the solenoid trigger wire. So I started backing up. Switches, nothing. Should have +12v to switches. Great, gotta be a wiring or switch issue. Had +12v to one side of the fuse but not the other. Fuse LOOKED good via visible inspection. Ohm test, infinity. It broke inside of it, invisible to our eyes. I stuck a spare fuse in it and he fired it up.
4 DAYS of working on that thing, for a $0.15 fuse. That was 30 hours labor lost. Boss said charge him diag and repair labor (0.6 hours aka 36 minutes) and send it, and he'd deal with the rest later.
We all make mistakes. This one taught me a valuable lesson, don't ever rely on a visible fuse test. Day #1 at the new job they give me a golf car that wouldn't go (48v electric). Should click when you turn the key on. No click. I found a 3A fuse and "looked" at it, and rememberd the scag deal. Looked good, so with the boss standing there and agreeing that it was good, I tested it with DVOM, infinity. Replaced with new 3A fuse and it works find. 10 minutes.