testing start button & regulator on landlord2110

[landlord2110 41]

Tried to start tractor, but little smoke comes out near regulator. Decided to test started button, took out of tractor & you get continuity when you push button in. Does that mean switch is good. How do you test regulator(took gen/starter off & is good)?

[goatfarmer 817]

Switch sounds good.

[BLT 718]

Rusty terminals cause resistance and will heat up causing some smoke.

[landlord2110 41]

Found the problem - loose key switch to the frame & wired connection also loose to the switch.

[dhoadley 1,747]

I love them easy fixes. Congrats!

[theniteowl 29]

My 2010 has only the single wire kill switch.

Yours should be the same as mine in which case the issues were not caused by that weak kill switch connection, that only relates to shutting the engine off.

Continuity when pressing the starter button indicates it is working but check how much resistance you are getting there. If it is high then there may not be enough current getting through to make things work reliably. As BLT said, rusty terminals will cause connections to heat up. To take that further rusty connections might even prevent a connection entirely. The components draw a certain amount of power which requires a connection large enough to handle that much power and if the connection is rusty a reduced amount of metal is making contact but trying to carry the same amount of power which causes it to heat up. Often you can see sparks at some connections when the current draw is high and power arcs over a bad spot. The connection often heats up enough at that point to make a cleaner connection while you are running letting enough power through but it will go bad again quickly. Those arcs of power are also not good for your electrical system so it is a good idea to clean up any compromised connections.

[landlord2110 41]

I did clean all the connections for the electrical system-thanks to all for your expert advise.

[theniteowl 29]

A lot of times electrical problems are in the ground connection.

A weak connection to the frame of the tractor means a week ground to any electrical device relying on that ground. The regulator grounds directly to the frame and if it is not a clean connection things work poorly and even if it has a clean connection but the battery connection to the frame is bad then you will still have problems.

You see this a lot when people are restoring a tractor, car, motorcycle, etc and do a nice clean paint job then bolt everything together not realizing something was relying on a bare metal connection to the body for ground and the paint is insulating it. Rust essentially does the same thing.

Let us know how it comes out or if you need additional testing info.