My 580 is not starting from the cab. I can hear the solenoid ticking but sounds weak tho. Do these have a replaceable solenoid or is it a complete starter assembly? It’s at the farm I forgot to take a look. lol.
Check and clean all your cables/connections, especially grounds. Is battery charged, how old?
Make sure you are in neutral with the parking brake set. You can then take a small wire and jump from the large terminal on the back of the starter that goes to the battery, to the small terminal on the solenoid of the starter. This will help you narrow down the problem. If you jump the starter and it cranks over, then you know your battery and battery cables are good. If you really need the tractor you can use your regular starting procedure along with the jumper and get it going. If it still does the clicking with no cranking when using the jumper, then you probably do have a loose connection in the large cables or your battery is no good. It can be other things also but these are the most common culprits.
All connections are clean or new. Battery is fine as starts with a screwdriver by jumping it.
When you say all connections are clean, are you referring to battery connections or all the connections? How about the negative cable where it's bolted to the block, connections at the push button, neutral safety switch, are your battery cables corroded inside of the insulation? All of these things could give you trouble. When I first rescued my C it drove me nuts, same issue. Bought brand new battery, put brand new positive cable on because old one was corroded as hell. Same crap. Old ground cable was previously replaced, damn near new, but bolted connection was **** poor and corroded. Replaced bolt,washer and cleaned cable end, block/starter mounting points. Cranked like new.
If everything appears good and clean you could add a relay to the starter circuit. It takes less power than going direct from key switch to starter solenoid. Over time wires develop resistance and the relay requires less volts to operate. I'm adding one to my Kubota skid steer to get rid of the click click click when trying to get the starter engaged. It was originally a problem on some JD tractors and is also a common problem on Kubota's. The kit is a (JD) AM107421 hard start kit but there are many on Amazon for far less money. It's very simple. I got one for $23cad. The OEM JD is $196cad. which is a complete rip off. They are about $14US. It's a simple relay with 4 wires.
Rusty, you can take the solenoid off the starter and clean the contacts and possibly flip the plate. Make sure you disconnect the battery. Its relatively an easy job and should fix you up.
If we assume he is jumping the small terminal on the solenoid, and not the large terminals on the solenoid, then that proves the solenoid, the grounds, the large wiring and the battery are good. If that is true that means he has a control problem with the starter switch, the neutral safety, or some other small control wiring problem. Have you wiggled the forward/reverse lever around while you hold the starter button down?
That can help too but sometimes isn't the only problem.
Maybe I misunderstood or didn’t read correctly. If it’s starting at the solenoid on the starter, with the key on, he has power and ground. He could have a bad ground at the starter but that means generally, all the starting circuit is acting properly. In that case, I would generally start with the solenoid at the starter. Of course, there is a whole proper way to diagnose the starting system but it seems the OP wants to cut some corners.
Sometimes there is too much resistance or the wire from the key switch is marginal at best. A relay takes much less watts to activate than the solenoid and basically acts like a power booster. It's a real common problem on Kubota's and some other machines. It's really cheap to add a relay too.
Maybe, before he adds in another electrical component, he actually gets whats going on fixed first. I agree on the relay and will probably be adding one to my Kubota V2203 in the Scat Trak when I finish putting it back together.
580 C is one of the most simple, easily accessible starting circuits out there. You don't even need a key or be in the cab to jump start, as long as fuel is in on position. There is no need to hack into the system with relays, doodads or thingamabobs. Original question about starters depends whether machine has Nippondenso style (what I've got) or Delco-Remy. Delco solenoids easily replaceable, have never done the Nippondenso so don't know. Should probably first isolate starter and bench test. If starter proves good then OP needs to look at the uber simple wiring diagram and repair what's there, even if he has to replace a wire or switch. When you start hacking into oem harness you're just kicking the can down the road and essentially screwing the next guy that has to figure out *** is this hacked mess. Have seen it in real life and here several times. Dear HEF "tractor won't start , harness hacked, wires everywhere, what do I do?"
Many articles on relays solving no start problems where turning the key it just clicks several times. It's really common with Nippondenso starters. Very similar to a short fuel filter solving a loss of prime issue on some Cummins engines. Can't find anything wrong but the short filter solves the problem. As far as the relay, it can be a lot easier than trying to run new wires on some machines. Relay goes close to the starter and can be done so looks professional.
Yes a relay can be installed. First, maybe he should find the bad ground or whatever he has going on. The relay, is added to fix a peticular problem of low voltage to solenoid upon cranking. Not sure how we got to add a relay to fix a simple electrical connection to the starter. I hate when someone has changed the factory wiring in a way that prevents me from troubleshooting an electrical problem from the factory schematics. I paid good money for the manuals in all my machines and if they are changed, I wanna be the one doing the changes and it will get noted in the manual. I hate when I work on something, I have worked on before and didn’t jot notes down and as I get older, it seems more common.
Lots of low hour Kubota's have benefitted from a simple relay.
Please notice thread title makes no mention of anything Kubota.
That doesn't mean other engines or brands of equipment can't benefit from the same simple $20 fix. A relay takes less power to operate than a solenoid so there is less power loss to the solenoid. Contacts in the key switch last longer too. Before condemning a relay maybe do some research on where they have solved hard starting and the solenoid clicking multiple times not engaging the starter.