Macdon M150 Light issues.

[farmaholic]

[URL=http://photobucket.com/]/URL]

[URL=http://photobucket.com/]/URL]

Notice the changes at F3, F4, F15, F16 and F18. At F21&22 where mine is spare they put in a "lighting direction relay". The wiring may even be different so...

I need to determine why ALL the lights go out when they trip-- when F15 only controls the engine forward(roading lights) and F16 controls the rest of the lights on the cab, the radio and interior dome light.

The light switch at "field" position turns all the lights on at a time, the "road position" turns off the cab forward lights(field working lights) and leaves the two back corner cab lights and the roading lights and the tail lights on.

I have to go back to the wiring schematic and try to figure out what is tripping both F15&16 to cause all the lights to go out at one time. Can't look at those things too long, get a headache, lol. We've never blown a fuse, always the circuit breakers trip. We had the machine running today with the lights on, but as james said probably too cool out to cause it to trip. I think it is a manufacturing/engineering error. LEDs would be nice but they aren't cheap either, I would be more than satisfied with the quality of the lighting if the damn things would stay on!!!

[Oliver88]

If what Jay-mo says is true, going to LED wouldn't help.

Interesting that the fuse panel is located in an area that gets overheated from the engine.

[Oliver88]

Sounds like their electrical engineering department dropped the ball on this.

[farmaholic]

I am far from an electrical engineer but I looked at the schematics tonight and there seems to far too much happening through the F16 position in the fuse panel. I can't safely put in a higher amperage circuit breaker without knowing if the wiring can handle it. Circuit breakers and relays are really mechanical devices, I am going to ask or research if they weaken over time, especially if they've been tripped numerous times.

I hate giving up.

[farmaholic]

Jay-mo, is the face of your fuse panel covered in dielectric grease? Mine is.

As silly as this may sound, I wonder if that little compartment could be pressurized with air from the cab that has been A/C-ed, it would exhaust out the back where the wires come through the frame rail and probably out the sides were the cover meets the frame. Unless condensation issues would develop, that would cause a whole new set of problems.

[TOM4CWB]

BTW,

My suggestion though radical removes the problem by requiring only miliamps... trigger amperage to relays is minuscule... from 15-20 amps. Plus the relay and breaker do not need to be in that fuse box where all the trouble is. put in a breaker/relay junction box like we use on highway equip. and make sure to put info into manual and factory fuse box to alert folks to mods.

We run both a 2008 M150 and 2012 W150 with NO problems... strange how these problems are specific to limited select units. JD in Camrose WOULD NOT sell me one of their W150 units... that would burn out the wiring harness... so it is unit specific not a problem on all MaDon units.

[farmaholic]

Tom, I took not of your solution. The system has a series of fused and circuit breaker power sources that trigger relays to supply power to what is in their circuit. I honestly wouldn't know where to safely splice in.

This unit was bought brand new by us. We made absolutely no modifications. The problem may be unit(s) specific but there has to be a cause... and that is what I'm looking for. The fact that there were changes to the same model in subsequent years says they know there was an issue.

In today's day and age one would think the engineers would known the limitations of components, singularly and grouped, this isn't new technology and FAR from my strong point.

Thanks for the input though.

[farmaholic]

If anyone is going past their swather could you please look inside the fuse box and see what size circuit breaker(mine are circuit breakers!) is at F15 and F16.

Thanks in advance.

[TOM4CWB]

Farmaholic,

Pull power direct from the battery... no risk in your own breakered power supply... and trigger the field lights with present controls... but supply lights with you own circuit breakered new power source to run them. A simple fix... yet last resort for most.

The problem is in their MacDon wiring harness it seems... not breakers in their system.

[farmaholic]

Are you saying the gauge of the wire may be a little light for the draw placed on it in some places.

I will be looking for components that have shared functions because all the lights go out and there is kind of two different circuits. Some shared components are actually the light switch itself but also some relays get tied together into the system. Maybe the coils in the relays cant be held closed anymore. Grasping at straws.

[farmaholic]

Tom, F15 & F16 had 20 amp circuit breakers in them and the panel diagram inside the cover even has them listed.

[farmaholic]

Ok.... found a loose ground under the roof panel accessible from righthand headliner panel that has radio in it and the A/C controls. The ground point is a stud right under the antenna mount....

Hope this does it. A loose ground is never a good thing.

Thanks for all the input.

[TOM4CWB]

Farmaholic,

Hope that fixes it! Bad grounds are bad news!!!

[farmaholic]

The nut was so loose it could be turned off by hand. You could easily wiggle the eyelet on the stud. We wired brushed the surface, put on some dielectric grease and put it back on tightly.

[farmaholic]

Forgot to say, this may not solve the whole problem but it likely wasnt helping matters either(AT ALL). Agree bad grounds can cause alot of issues. Hope this whole exercise maybe helps someone else...