Old wiring
 

Take this however you want it, I'm finding that the wiring on the really old Cadets has outlived its usefulness / safety. Thought my 124 was pretty bad, kind of blamed it on a PO. Well it was bad and butchered, the wiring on dad's 100 was just plain dry rotten!

Here is the back story, I had to rebuild his golf cart engine because it was smoking more than a diesel pulling tractor. So while it was down for the rebuild he had to ride his 100 butt buggy around---getting the mail, over to my house, to the farm shop--etc. Well one day it just died in the middle of his driveway. Fortunately my son was home to go tow him in. I checked fuel and fire. Plug was getting wet, but fire was sporadic. Checked voltage to coil, only about 10 volts. So it had to sit a week while I finished up the golf cart.

Pulled in the shop this morning and figured I would start at the switch and work my way toward the plug. I was horrified to find the back half of the hot cable naked--and rubbing the steering column. It's been this way for a while--look at the green corrosion. One of the wires to the key switch actually snapped off after I unhooked it and was wrestling with the rest of the harness. Mice had decided to pee on top of the starter switch housing so much that it ate a hole thru it! Got all that cleaned up, cleaned the ground, reinstalled battery, figured I'd check the voltage to the coil. As soon as I touched with the volt meter the wired end popped off. Wire itself looked pretty good, so just put on a new end. For the heck of it I grabbed the spark tester from our magneto tester--I could maintain over 1/2" spark. Put in a new plug and he's back in business.

My point to this long ramble is this. He has had this mower for close to 30 years, and it has been kept in useable shape practically this entire time. Like it or not, some things wear out with age. If you have some time this winter, take a good like at your wiring harness on your older machines.

In my line of trade, I see this all the time. Wire sheathing gets brittle, cracks, and sometimes fall off.

IHMO.....that is the time to string some new and fresh wire(s) or a whole new harness.


:IH Trusted Hand:

Couldn't agree more.. I'm getting a lot of equipment into that status. Had a farm tractor last winter that the wiring was in really bad shape and we had no clue. I just started replacing one wire after the other, dang near the entire harness. Wasn't too bad of a task and it really helped with the electrical issues on that machine.

My 106 has what appears to be a factory original 1970 wiring harness on it, and I'm very surprised to report that it's still in near perfect working order, as are the headlights that the P.O., who had bought the tractor new shortly after starting his career as an electrician, rigged up from leftover commercial emergency lights.

Hoping to get through the summer with it as is, figure between that and the fuel leak, it's gonna be easier to mount a fire extinguisher than fix the problems LOL.

yup. in getting my 129 back from the dead I too have had a few issues. like a PO substituting that brown 2 wire molded together extension cord wiring for the original last 6" of the neutral switch wiring and but connectoring them together... wires exposed to the elements like this aint the place for crimp butt connectors. I fixed it right with solder/ heat shrink, wire was still in good shape under the sheathing. on 2 of the 3 wires going to the V/R, there were breaks in the insulation right where the wires come out of that fabric conduit that bundles them all together.... I dislodged the plastic connectors from the factory terminals and slid some heat shrink over them to repair them for now.... eventually once I get it all debugged and running right (I need it up n going for a mower and sprayer towing mule right now) I do plan to dismantle it down to bare nothing for a proper sandblast and repaint, probably over next winter. at that point I will either make my own new harness from scratch (won't be the 1st time I have rewired a GT from scratch, did 3 of my 4 Ariens machines as I got them) or spring for a repop harness from the guy that you guys always talk about....