Indicator Lites, 300 - 400 series tractors

On my 418A the oil light flashes when you use the test switch and when you turn teh ignition on. On the 418 it is an oil pressure indicator not an oil level. I know for sure as the pressure switch sprang a leak a few weeks ago spraying oil on the muffler making much smoke....but it did not trigger the warning light.....


The oil is the only light that flashes....

Paul,
thanks for the update. There appears to be a bare spot on the indicator board which probably supports a circuit for flashing the OIL PRESSURE light on your tractor. Seems like they should have added a loud beeper to this function ( like a backup beeper on trucks) so that you would not have a chance to miss the flashing lite if you drop oil pressure while mowing.

on the 312 the test makes oil light up solid

Chapter 2 - Starting the Circuit Board Repair

I had an opportunity to repair a few of the corroded traces on the indicator board last night.
I'm happy with my results on some connections and not at all happy with others,

this one I'm happy with - just wrapped a wire around the lamp post and soldered the ends of the wire to the good section of the corroded trace - then soldered the wire to the post - this reestablished + 12 volts to the rest of the indicator bulbs.



the same trace still had many open areas further up the board, so I flipped the board over and daisy chained a wire to each indicator lamp post that needed +12 volts.



instead of this




but now the bad news.....

I lifted one of the traces from several attempts to re-solder the indicator posts - the solder joints always looked cold and ragged so the pad finally let go - not a problem really - somewhat expected



and the edge connector trace that was half eaten away needs to be redone - this will never fit into the edge connector.I will need to obtain a piece of adhesive backed copper similar to what is used on stained glass - glue it to the board and eliminate the wire in this photo that causes the lump to form (the lump is my poor craftsmanship - but it does give a good example of the wrong way to do the fix).



Stayed tuned - parts are on order.

Tomorrow while we wait for parts, I'll do a quick review of how to check out diodes and transistors with an ohmmeter.

old iron, ever consider using a conductive pen instead of solder to repair traces. like here:

http://www.2spi.com/catalog/spec_prep/Circ...ilver-Pen.shtml

I do know these exist but I have never used one, unless you count the silver paint I used to repair the defroster grid on my car. Now that you mention it - I think I may still have some of that conductive "paint" out in the garage. Plus, at almost $50 for the pen, I'll give the stained glass copper a try first.

Some of the repairs - like the one shown to fix the indicator lamp post - needs mechanical backup to secure the actual post. The solder pen would not provide enough support for the post to secure it to the pc board - so I used the wire.

Here is a good link to describe the edge connector repair process.

http://solder.net/PCB/Edge_Connector_Repair_Instructions.pdf

If you're any good with a small brush, here's a pretty good price on bottles of brushable silver.

http://www.action-electronics.com/conductivepaint.htm

Thanks Jim,

I'll see if that s the next alternative if the replacement of the copper trace doesn't work out.

The silver conductive paint is still $37 plus shipping and this old girl needs red paint for the hood more than she needs silver paint for the indicator board !!!

I'll keep you updated.

This is an awesome thread!

Thanks for easy to understand explanations for those of us that are electronically challenged!

I'll second that!

Thanks guys - it's great to see what can be accomplished when a group gets together behind a problem and works it thru to its end.

My offer still stands - If there are any other questions I can answer as we go along here - please ask and I'll do my best to explain the electronic part of this great hobby we enjoy.

This weekend I will update this post to show how to check diodes and transistors with a multimeter - the diode part can be easily used when checking diodes in the stator output circuits of some unregulated charging systems - stay tuned.

and thanks again for the kind words.

This is an outstanding thread, and I am really glad that we have it. One request, if you venture off the circuit board discussion and into other electronic components, please start a new topic to make searching for this easier in the future.

Still waiting for some repair parts but I did get a chance to correct the excessive solder blobs on the edge connector of the indicator card

originally, the corroded edge connector trace looked like this - a definite open circuit





the first attempt at fixing the eaten away copper trace was made by laying a wire across the gap and applying solder - turned out like this - unacceptable - probably would not fit in the molex connector due to the height of the solder blob





so I decided to scrape away the corroded connector entirely





then using self adhesive pure copper film (used for constructing stained glass windows)





a small piece of this copper tape was attached to the previous location of the corroded trace - the copper was trimmed to the proper width





a little touch of solder applied to the new copper - and make sure the original thin trace at the top of the pad is touching the new copper - and you get a very acceptable solder joint that will work well.





that fixes up the dozen or so corroded areas and traces on this pcb

I am still awaiting delivery of the grain o wheat bulbs to replace the missing and burned out bulbs

I will post the results of this effort probably by week's end.

On suggestion from the moderators, I will start a new post on checking the diodes and transistors on this circuit board. Checking the diodes can be useful for other areas on the tractor including unregulated stator outputs for lightweight charging systems.

Stay tuned - all comments and questions are welcome.

I have not forgotten about giving you folks an update. I'm actually thinking about substituting LED's for the indicator lights and actually thinking about repositioning the indicators onto the warning decal area of the hood of this 416-8.

Sorry, but I think that flat real estate could have been put to better use than a warning decal

I have to get all the wiring and all the bypassed safety switches to function before any of these lights will work in the first place.

So maybe I'll start a 416 dash board design contest and see where that goes.

Stay tuned