Borrowed my father in laws tractor, and just my luck it went kapoot on me.

It is a New Holland TC45D. I was on it and it was running, jumped off to move something, and when I jumped back on - nothing. No power to the dash, won’t restart, nothing.

I used a meter and the battery is at 12.6V. Checked the starter and had good voltage, but heard something make a trip sound. No idea what it is.

Tonight I look out there and the blinker is on, I go over to start it and “click” the trip sound again. And all is off....

Any ideas?

Check to see if you might have kicked or bumped the PTO lever which would shut it down if not in seat.

Need to check ALL fuses, relays, circuit breakers and most importantly GROUNDS.

Google the tractor model and the pronlem Google will lead you to a forum with some answers.

I'm just guessing here...………………
But look at, the sensors.... Seat, neutral, pto..etc...…
Make sure everything is in neutral..... Sounds like you may have
hit a lever or something.....

DC is correct, a little research and found info about the PTO, I still stand by my original response at this point.

Lefty is right, it has a bad conection, ground or power.

Yes, my first step would be to remove and clean the negative battery terminal and post, and remove and clean the other end of the cable where it connects to the frame. All other checks are mute if the ground connection is bad.

A buddy's tractor quit on him turned out to be a safety switch on the seat. popped it back in and started right up.

The turn signal staying on until the key was turned on and then everything went dead.

Your missing a ground. Where or how is the question, when a component looses a ground, the piece of equipment can do some VERY unusual things and have you chasing your tail. It’s going to find a ground, sometimes everything turns of sometimes things start smoking.

Check all fuses and circuit breakers also.

After you have verified the PTO and other items are not engaged and have checked the battery cables, check the fuses. The Ford tractor I sold last year would start one time and then click the next time. Turned out one of the fuse blocks was getting weak at the connections. Moved the fuse and wired to an empty one and problem solved. Good luck.

Lefty is giving good advice.

I will add this- on that particular model there is a little module under the steering wheel that controls a few things. It is about 2”x3” and just plugs into the harness. It will cause strange things to happen including a no start situation. If you exhaust all other options, check this.

Did it die when you stood up and got off the tractor, or while you were on the ground?

Thanks guys - will be going through it after work tomorrow.

I have cleaned the battery terminals and checked the seat safety switch and PTO. One thing to note, there is absolutely no power to the dash (no lights etc). Before this happened, even when PTO handle was not set all the way back - it had power on dash.

The ground piece makes sense. I just need to be able to trace it all back.

And to answer Cast’s question - it was running, I got up (safety switch killed it), and when I sat back down it was out.

Electrical gremlins are such a PITA but that is exactly what this is.

The man.

Should be some fuses up under the dash. Check there first. If it were a safety switch, your dash should still have power.

sounds like a fuse, relay or either seat or PTO safety switch. There should be a fuse block/panel under the dash somewhere.

I believe the seat switch interrupts the power to the ignition circuit. Get a meter and see if you have power to one side of the switch with the seat folded forward. If you do, press the switch and see if power shows up on the other side of the switch.

I’ve had this happen twice. Once the seat switch popped out of its mount, easy fix. The other time I had a corroded fuse inside a weatherproof fuse holder. That one was hard to find but easy to fix. The ignition switch failing would also do this.

This is what I would check first.

i have no experience with that tractor but from what you said originally, sounds like you have a bad main power circuit breaker somewhere

p.s. then again, could have a dead short causing it to trip, like a bad starter or stuck solenoid

Fairly common problem on this series NH.

How old is the battery?
12.6v is on the low end of a 'good' battery, especially with a properly functioning charging system.
Remove positive cable & charge.
If it is an older battery have it load tested.

The combination of amps required to turn starter and the amps needed for the glow plug circuit can zap a weak battery.
A click or trip sound coming from the left side is either the neutral safety relay or glow plug power relay doing its job or in case of weak battery failing to stay in closed/run position due to lack of amperage.

After checking the various safety switches, ( trans shuttle or hydrostatic switch, pto switch, seat switch ), best you can do without going into detail is ensure they move freely and are in the open / up / start position.
If the seat switch hasn't been bypassed it is the only one that needs to be depressed to start.

The fuses & circuit breakers are under the instrument cluster, remove the 2 screws that mount the cluster pull out slightly to access the fuse panel.
If #2 is blown replace with a self resetting 8a circuit breaker, most folks use a 10a self reset breaker.
Some came from the factory with a 7.5a fuse, some with a 8a fuse, a few with the 8a self re setting circuit breaker.
NH's fix is to install an 8a circuit breaker, which works for about 2 months, that's why most folks go with the 10a self re set breaker.
All wiring to & from will take a 15a load, but do not replace #2 with more than the 10a.

The relays are under the left side panel. If the click / trip sound come from the left side.
Most common problem is glow plug power relay going bad #10, or the neutral start / safety relay #9.
A weak battery will also cause malfunction. Both require adequate power/amps to start/run.

The main 40a fuse is just above the starter.

Because it is easy try some jumper cables from another battery.

Jumper cables from the battery to the block will quickly tell you if a main ground is the problem.

When doing simple electrical troubleshooting I’ll wear out my power probe and a set of jumper cables. More than one member has witnessed this.