Re: (ET) E-14 Mower problem- sparky

[David C Robie <mycroftxx1 juno com>]

Sounds as if you have two grounds to the frame somewhere.  In these
mowers,  nothing is supposed to be grounded to the frame.  A little
leakage to the chassis on the high ohms range is normal it''s from yrs of
batt acid fumes but it don't bother anything and it certainly isn't
enough to cause a spark. 

I would do an ohmmeter check, with the deck dismounted and  not plugged
in to it's chassis.  That should find you one of the grounds.  Suspect
the harness, as it could be a pinched wire under it's shield or at the
cable clamp. Only way to tell, disconnect all wires to all motors see if
short is still there from any pin on the crowfoot plug.
The deck motors are all in parallel but connected under the harness
shield.  Another reason to suspect it.   If short was inside a motor it
would blow the circuit breaker on the shorted motor's side (underbelly
deck motor) or top (front deck motor) 
    Of course there's always the chance that whoever converted the deck
didn't understand that there were to be no chassis grounds, and connected
it as you would for an automobile, IE 'frame is ground'    Then, when it
didn't work as expected, made their own ground at battery negative.  
This could cause all sorts of commotion.


As to the other 'ground' if inadvertent.  it could be any hot wire
anywhere. One place that happens is the cable bundle going to the rear
battery compartment.  This gets chafed if the belt is loose.  It may have
been moved away from the belt and pulled a little tight and got it's
insulation cut.

You didn't mention what model the tractor is. 

Dave
Weymouth MA



On Sat, 28 Apr 2007 04:11:06 -0500 Daniel Childress <daniel csuol com>
writes:
>       Having mower problems.  Must be a short somewhere.  The mower 
> 
> has been converted from an under belly to a front mount.  Problem- 
> When the mower is tilted up and turned on all three motors spin. 
> When they are turned on the tractor starts to move like in gear. 
> Tractor stops and motors start to bog down.  With mower engaged and 
> I 
> start to move the tractor in reverse center motor stops.  I see 
> sparks coming from the arms that attach the mower to the tractor. 
> Short where the arms attach to the pins on the tractor.  Any 
> suggestions.  Batteries seem to be charged.  Also with mower engaged 
> 
> and tractor in gear the power meter pegs to the right for a very 
> short time then goes back to normal in the green.   Has anyone had a 
> 
> problem like this????
> 
> Dan Childress
> E-15, E-14, Tiller, blade, rotary inverter, static inverter
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Elec-trak mailing list
> Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu
> https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak
>