Tractor electrical problem

wind.turbine, Sep 15, 1:18pm
Bit of an interesting one here.

Tractor is a Deutz Farh Agrotron 105 yr 2004

Battery has just been replaced about a month ago after the last one crapped out.

Has been starting fine up till now, after running for 20 min and shut down, upon restart it would not turn over.
instead the starter just clicked and the windscreen wiper came on, which never happened with the last battery not starting.

Tried several times and then all of a sudden away it goes.

then today starts this morning fine then after restarting it later on it would do the same thing but then this time it got to the point it was only slowly cranking, jump start did nothing so no problem with the battery and battery clamps are tight and clean, connections to starter are tight as well.
What would be causing this and causing it to power up the windscreen wiper?

ideas?

intrade, Sep 15, 2:21pm
water in a fuse box . my mates fiat marea had
the whiper on and the horn blowing at 4 am in the morning .
fuse box corroded shorted out is the most plausible reason for this.
my 1988 iveco also had the lights on one day and i could not turn it off was also a fuse box filled with water .

wind.turbine, Sep 15, 2:53pm
yea on a car I would be looking at that but this only has one fuse box and its in the cab so it is completely waterproof as the computer is also in the same place

wind.turbine, Sep 15, 2:56pm
thinking it could be the starter or solenoid but not sure what is with the wipers coming on, unless its dead shorting for some reason somewhere and its back feeding somehow

yz490, Sep 15, 3:47pm
Without knowing anything about Deutz Fahr in particular it sounds like a starter motor problem, brushes if ya lucky considering it's clicking like the solenoid part is doing it's job & you've covered a battery possibility. [just a guess].--edit, another thought--loose lead to starter motor, unlikely but.

tony9, Sep 15, 4:34pm
Sounds like it has the Lucas disease.

budgel, Sep 15, 4:35pm
For the starting issues I would be checking the earth leads to the engine/frame are clean and tight.
Odd things like your wipers can be back fed because of poor earthing.
I also would be checking out the ignition/starter switch.
There seem to be several online wiring diagrams available if you do a google search.

mrcat1, Sep 16, 2:18am
Sounds like starter solenoid is starting to get burnt points.

mechnificent, Sep 16, 5:12am
I'd be suspecting a bad earth. as said, the wipers could be coming on because they are getting back feed through their earth. especially if it's the cab's earth that is defective.

Check all the earths, including the cab and computer's earths.

trade4us2, Sep 16, 8:14am
Connect a voltmeter from the body of the tractor to every earth point, particularly the computer earth. The reading should be zero, or millivolts.
I found a bad earth (broken solder joint) inside a car computer. The computer kept dying and booting up several times a minute.

wind.turbine, Sep 16, 8:25am
thanks guys, also thinking could be a bad earth as we have been having issues with it playing up with the throttle having a mind of its own so that could be also getting caused by a bad earth somwhere

bwg11, Sep 16, 9:42am
Yep, this is where I would be looking first. As another poster suggests put a volt meter between a good earth on the cab and a good earth on the tractor frame.

wind.turbine, Sep 17, 2:26pm
update,
Have given the battery terminal clamps a good clean up but may have found the problem, after following the earth lead and searching for a good 5 min where it bolted onto the engine, its definitely loose, given it a spray with wd40 and a good move around but problem is going to be getting to it to tighten it so will have to wait until the machine comes back home, starts well now though so suspect that's the cause.

mojo49, Sep 17, 3:08pm
Ha. I was going to say earth problem. That is why the wipers would go.

wind.turbine, Sep 17, 3:28pm
yup I should have realized earlier as we thought we were having sensor problems so had the computer scanned twice with no codes but was doing all sorts of funny things, old battery was old so may have been stuffed but thinking now it probably was not getting charged properly with that bad earth.

trade4us2, Sep 17, 6:31pm
If the computer has a bad earth it won't be able to log any codes.

alfred011, Sep 19, 3:38am
I have seen on some tractors John Deere and New Holland where the owner has got a bit carried away with the water blaster and forced water into the plugs under the cab .Once they were pulled apart and sprayed with CRC556 and blown out with compressed air the problems were fixed .