Stuck Dump Truck and Hot Wiring the MF 240

This weekend we had 20 tons more gravel brought in to thicken up a few areas that didn't have sufficient depth.  On this particular occasion the dump truck driver would not heed Scott's advice to back down the driveway dropping and spreading the gravel.  By this method he had learned from one of the previous dump truck haulers (who was very good at operating his truck and spreading) that delivered last month, that while tougher to navigate down a winding road like ours going backwards, he would not get stuck in the soft gravel on the slope coming back up.  Anyway this particular driver went forward and dumped it evenly at about 4-5 inch thick.  Sure enough he was unable to back up the hill because the gravel was too loose and soft, as predicted.  Eventually with a long series of backing and forwarding maneuvers he compacted the road enough for his tires to get some traction and eased his rig up the slope but not without making a rutted mess. Once he was gone our attention went back to getting the tractor going so we could level and smooth the gravel with the loader.

Finally we figured out the problem with the starting system.  The battery was not the issue after all but nonetheless we have a brand spanking new one installed that should last us a few years.  Long story short we were able to bypass the neutral starting switch which we think is defective based, not only on our diagnostics, but also on the mechanic's testimony on a phone call back to the dealer in Florida who sold it to us.  We did this with a screwdriver tip on the neutral switch terminal running to the solenoid over to the hot battery terminal of the solenoid.  The engine fired up!

While warming up the machine we made an attempt to learn how the various functions of the machine worked when you pulled a lever or turned a knob.  The PTO works as it should but the lift bars of the 3 point hitch were funky and didn't raise or lower (he thinks he diverted the hydraulic fluid from the auxillary lines that run the FEL back to the hydraulic storage tank when randomly tweaking the levers).   No matter at this point Scott got to work crudely spreading the newly laid gravel by back dragging the FEL bucket from top of the driveway to the bottom.  Actually he did a pretty good job grooming it with the bucket.   See some of his handiwork here.

This is Caterpillar brand battery part# 153-5656.  Supposedly they are higher quality battery's with anti-vibration design built into them for "Ag" applications.  Below this you can see the solenoid where the (+) battery lead (heavy cable) connects.  The blue terminal lead is the neutral switch line which is either faulty or the connection onto the solenoid is bad/inadequate.