Battery holder and terminal corrosion... ground issue or somethign else?

[dsholler 54]

Hello,

I had not used my tractor in a few weeks, and it was sitting in the garage.

When I opened the hood, the positive terminal of the battery and the bracket that holds the battery in place had a lot of what appeared to be electrical corrosion (this was on the actual battery pole, and on the nut that screws down the bracket on the negative side of the battery) . Also, the battery was very low (it took 3 days on the trickle charger to get back up to 12.6 volts. )

However, I have also discovered that I have a ground problem... in some cases the tractor will not start (turn the key and there is no voltage on the meter in run, and just an anemic click when you try to start).. I did what any good uninformed person would do, and jiggled the wires, and found that when I moved the main ground strap (the one going form the negative terminal of the battery to the bolt on the tower) it would start right up.

My question is whether these two things are related, or two separate problems. I will change the ground wire, but it was not clear to me how if there was a break in the ground wire, I could get current leakage through the battery bracket, since it does not touch the battery terminals. Obviously, I can just wait and see if it happens again, but was wondering if anyone else had seen this kind of thing.

My only guess as to what was going on was that the hood was making contact with the positive pole on the battery, but that still did not explain why there would be corrosion at the point where the nut attached to the battery bracket.

I should mention it is a 87 414-8

[Sparky-(Admin) 23,989]

I cant explain the corrosion but instead of swapping the negative cable I would remove it, emery cloth both ends of it and the spot where it connects to the tractor dash tower. Then cover the terminals with die-electric grease and re-install it. Do the same with the positive cable as well.

Mike.........

[dsholler 54]

Mike,

I did that about 5 months ago.. I suppose I could do it again, but I sure hope it does not need to be done that frequently. (I changed the starter solenoid then, and took all the wiring between the battery and starter and battery and ground off, and sanded and greased it all)

[dsholler 54]

well, I did not change the ground strap but I did what Mike suggested (well, not all of it, I just cleaned up the ground contact with the tower) but that has solved the starting issue. It still does not explain the current leakage... I guess I will have to search for a short someplace..