[rkd843]

I hooked up to the airdrill this spring and had 2 errors come up "Tank1 Clutch Shorted or Open" and "Tank2 Clutch Shorted or Open" and to top it all off the master clutch has disappeared off of the list of items that are connected to the BUS. Has anyone found any trouble similar to this?

There is also an intermittent error that claims the flexcontrol system voltage is reading low, but I am having a seemingly related issue with the GPS screen loosing power when starting the tractor under load. just as i let the clutch out that is when both monitors through a fit about low power and then never again. The original 2 issues are constant

 

[torriem]

Is the battery on your cart holding a good charge? We just had the alternator fail on our cart and that caused all kinds of strange things to happen including the low voltage error. The fan rpm stopped reading reliably and strangely enough the AM/FM radio in the cab would turn itself off. Eventually our meters wouldn't hold the rate once the on-board battery dropped below 12v. Once we replaced the alternator on the cart, all these issues went away.

Or does the mechanical cart not have an alternator?

 

[rkd843]

No Alternator on the mechanical cart.

That is the beauty of the mechanical cart, even with all of these errors I just threw a car battery on top of the manifold and hot wired the master clutch. Managed to get 320 ac seeded before the 2" rain. Now that I can't move I am trying to diagnose the problem.

 

[Northern Farmer]

I wonder if your tractor batteries have degraded to the point where the voltage drop is too severe for the GPS as that can certainly happen when cranking over an engine and more so if its cool out. A weak tractor alternator as well causing the low battery issue. Also I wonder if its possible you have a solenoid on the tractor system that has bad contacts and is loosing voltage to the system including the plug for the cart. Just seems odd that you are having issues with the GPS and the clutches, very possible the two are being affected by a similar issue of lack of voltage and/or amperage as well. You've proven that the main clutch will work on the cart. I'd check the voltage on the tractor batteries after the unit has sat over night before its started, then start it and at low idle check voltage, again with lights and the cab fan on to load it and also at low engine idle, then speed up the engine and see if there is a drastic performance difference. Just some basic ideas

 

[rkd843]

One of the 3 batteries is new this spring, alternator is about 2 years old. I did just have some transmission work done and the cab was off of the tractor, so I will check those connections for cab power. Checking the node voltages the monitor and the field nodes are within 0.2 V. But I have not looked at this screen to check voltages when I get the other voltage errors. I don't see how these voltage drops can cause the master clutch to just drop off the node completely

 

[Slashnburn2]

It's a flexicoil. The electrical is fkn junk and always will cause trouble. Maybe the new iso carts are better.

Wire in a toggle switch and go seed. We did that for like 20 years.

 

[Northern Farmer]

That is a good point about the tractor having been worked on, certainly room for human error there. As to the batteries, I raise my eyebrows anytime its said that one of a set of batteries was replaced because often the bad battery assuming it was low on voltage draws down the others and ends up damaging them all. I would also go through all battery connections and the grounding cable connection, starter connection etc. That may mean undoing the ground cable to frame to check on the starter connections, oh and also the alternator power and ground cable connection.

As to Slashes comment, although it may come to that I just have this feeling something isn't right regardless on the tractor for the GPS to shut down when cranking.

 

[KWO]

You say when you let the clutch out, are you meaning tractor clutch?
So when the tractor moves the cart has trouble, if so, it could be around the plugs on the harness at the hitch.

 

[rkd843]

I have gone through all of the electrical connections on the tractor and through generous use of dielectric grease all of the connections back to the drill. I disconnected both remotes and reconnected and the problem still persists.

One last question for everyone, is it possible that the flex control system swapped itself over to a variable rate configuration and that is why the master clutch dropped out

 

[Northern Farmer]

Not that I've had that happen ( and my cart is variable rate rather then mechanical ) but I wonder if whatever low voltage or momentary split second power "issue" that caused the GPS to shut down on you, if that same problem caused a glitch in your drill monitor and now its all confused. I am no good at anything computer related, if you can't sort anything out perhaps you have a decent tech at the dealership that can check the monitor aspect to see if its gone haywire and needs something reset.

 

[Dialed In]

I would start at the cart controller, I do not have my manuals with me but if I remember correctly there are three powers (red) and three grounds (black) going into the back electrical connectors of the controller. If you have some sowing pins you can squeeze them in by the wire and contact the terminal at the end to get a reading you should have minimum 12.5 volts if not trace the supply up to the tractor until you find where the voltage drops off. If you do have 12.5-13.5 to the controller then you can go to the clutch and measure voltage there (have everything powered up and drill in ground) you should see roughly the same voltage but likely will not. There are four powers coming out of the controller to the clutch I would then check continuity from these to the clutch if there is continuity check the four grounds. If both have continuity and there is no short and no voltage it is likely a bad controller. The controller sends out a signal at power up to detect what is connected if there is a break in a wire it will not detect the sensor or clutch or whatever it’s connected to so that may explain no clutch showing on your display. If you interested and I remember I can post the terminal numbers tomorrow when I get my manual.

 

[wheely]

Have you tried taking off with the lights on? I think maybe you’ve got a bad cab ground

 

[rkd843]

Problem Resolved!!!!

Found out the issue was with the tractor wiring harness. When the cab was removed for the transmission work the wire was reinstalled with just a little too loose over the top of the back axle. When I let the clutch out and the tractor would lurch just a little bit there was enough movement in the wire harness for the loom to just catch the rotating ear of the rear axle U-joint. so the first 100 ac were not an issue the plastic wire loom was just getting beat up. I lost the master clutch and the tank clutches when I lost the main ground in the CAN BUS but the remotes still had some grounding through other wires in the loom. We only found it when looking into the articulating joint of the tractor and aggressive wiggling the wire we finally saw a wire pop out of the (from above) seemingly undamaged loom. when stationary it also looked like there was plenty of distance between the wire and the u-joint. looking back I should have seen the signs, there is a jumper wire for the master clutch sitting right there at the back of the cart just in case you loose the remotes and have to hot wire the clutch, that did not have power to it, since it dose not go through the remotes I should have suspected that wire right away, that and the harness was recently moved should have clued me in, but those first 100 ac threw me.

I am making it sound like I was the one to find the issue, but credit should go to the local dealer, they sent out a pretty sharp tech that came out and had it fixed up in no time