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(ET) Smoke is not a good thing (E20 tilling)
It rained last night, so I went out today to do some more heavy tilling
with the E20, tiller, and power lift. The lift has been... augmented
with a 30a DC rated three position switch with a steel handle and a
center spring off configuration to replace the earlier switch I had
which was a normal cheap center off no spring toggle switch with a
plastic housing that... melted.
I use the lift pretty heavily to slowly dig into the ground and if I hit
the usual rock I run the tiller up, stop everything, and pull out the
rock. Then repeat.
However this is not a lift or tiller problem: While tilling away I had
the tractor in LL, was tilling soft ground, and doing the usual stop, go
forward a few inches, stop, go forward and for a moment the tractor
moved slower than usual and I saw a small amount of smoke coming from
the lower front panel (which is open right now). Not good. I shut down,
turned off the main disconnect, then turned it on, put the tractor in
neutral and gave it power.
Odd: The tiller came on in speed 1, then went off, then came on as I
lifted my foot off the pedal. I shut down, unplugged the tiller and lift
(in case it was a double ground fault) and started up. Same behavior
except I could hear the attachment contactor clicking on and off.
So I put the tractor in D, raised the mower deck, and drove the tractor
out. All speeds were ok. Parked it in a sunny spot to work on it and
tested again. Sure enough speed 1 seems to be turning the attachment PTO
relay ON then it drops OFF when I go to speeds 2 and above. May have
shorted two wires on the loom, I'll look at it later this week when I
have some more time.
The tiller *is* amazing though but it is a massive power attachment
device. Glad I have it, it's digging up all of the clay in portions of
my lawn and giving things a chance to be aerated. Also we had a major
storm last night and the area by the shed was NOT all wet and puddled,
indicating those tilled trenches I made are shunting the water away.
Progress!