# IH 574 Diesel won't start



## kmaninkan (Aug 3, 2014)

Let's try this again. Tractor was running fine, stop and start in the field. Then simply quit. When I turn the key I get a dull thud/clunk, a puff of smoke from the positive battery terminal, and then no more until I pull the positive cable and reset it. Then it clunks again, a puff of smoke, and on it goes. Cleaned the ground cable which was greasy. Checked visually all the wiring. Battery reads as fully charged. Could it (3 years old) have a bad cell or some such? Solenoid or starter? Haven't had real trouble with it before. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks.


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## cabbage (Aug 11, 2014)

Hi, I get symptoms like you describe due to bad grounding, not at the battery terminal but at other points between the starter and earth cable. I have ended up running an earth cable directly from the starter to the battery tray on the left of the tractor to minimise connections for the earth to the battery. 

I was pretty skeptical when I was told the issue was probably just a poor earth but this fix has sorted the problem.


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## kmaninkan (Aug 3, 2014)

Thanks Cabbage for your reply. I might try that eventually. I got it started by scraping the positive cable interior with a bolt thread, so I guess it's mainly a corrosion/contact issue, even though it didn't look corroded or gapped at all. Bought a battery brush and used that yesterday, with success. Must be that the cable is more worn than it looks, and I should probably replace it, but that's $30 I don't need to spend. Nice to hear from the 'old country' (I'm in Kansas). I knew the 574 was built in Britain, but didn't expect a response from there somehow.


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