Fuse "failure"

[dlundblad]

TL; DR: Grass clippings made their way in side a blade fuse, which caused it to blow.

I had the Kubota G1800 Diesel out last weekend. She was idling in the driveway for about 15 minutes before I noticed the temp gauge wasn't increasing and the fuel tank was reading empty. Knowing I just filled the tank, I tried turning on the headlights, which didn't turn on either. I parked her back in the garage and turned it off. After trying to restart it, nothing happened. Rain was in our forecast for a few days and I didn't have the time so there she sat.

I finally had time to check it out today and the battery was putting out 12.5 volts and the starter was getting 12.3 volts. There's a 3 fuse fuse box inside the radiators intake area and I noticed one was blown. Come to find out, it was packed fulled of 20 years worth of grass clippings. I replaced the fuse and she fired right up.

Who would have thunk. Grass clippings causing a fuse failure..

 

[racinjason]

I’m pretty sure that’s how I got my Kubota ZD21, grass in the shutdown fuse. The guy I bought it from said it randomly went dead and had a safety switch problem. Push on the shutdown fuse and the engine would go dead. Also it wasn’t charging the battery. New fuses and a cleaning and I’m back in business.

 

[Donald]

I brought the alternator from my Bobcat to two different rebuilding places and both said it was putting out a proper voltage. But gauge said the voltage was low. Come to discover the gauge had sawdust in it and the needle would only move so far. Odd things are possible.

 

[red7404]

sawdust? are you saying that there is WORK going on there? LOL. LOL.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: racinjason
I’m pretty sure that’s how I got my Kubota ZD21, grass in the shutdown fuse. The guy I bought it from said it randomly went dead and had a safety switch problem. Push on the shutdown fuse and the engine would go dead. Also it wasn’t charging the battery. New fuses and a cleaning and I’m back in business.


My dad has a gas equivalent of the diesel in my OP. Bought it for $500 because of a "safety switch" issue.

Anyways, it's fuse box has a rubber molded cover protecting it from debris.. It's a few years newer so maybe they did an upgrade?