John Deere X728 700 Series Starter Replacement, Should you do that yourself? Won't start still!

In this video, I take you through a step by step replacement of a brand new John Deere 700 series starter.
BUT, you should know that even with the new starter installed, the tractor did not start.
With each cycle of the ignition, the response was reduced.
First, the starter only partially engaged.
Then, it stopped engaging at all.
Then the dash lights began to stop showing up.
Then, the only sound was the fuel pump.
Then, I replaced all safety cutout switches AND installed a new starter.
SILENCE
So, I threw in the towel and called our John Deere Tractor repair shop.
They came and picked up my X728
The culprit was the dash circuit board, it required replacement.
Long story short, in the future, I'll just call them first.
This tractor was manufactured: 7/24/2008
When they replaced the circuit panel, it zeroed out my operation hours.
Now the tractor shows ONE hour of operation on a 15 year old tractor.
Interesting.
Thanks for watching.

[@parexc07]

Nice clear video an narration over the actual work noise...

[@kennith.]

Ouch, as you said at least you have a lot of new parts.

[@jasonkilgore1977]

Well that’s a common problem with all newer equipment. I feel they all have way to much electronics. There’s easy ways to wire safe items in without circuit boards. This is why I run all old stuff! lol I have several old tractors and won’t get rid of them for nothing. I am very glad you was able to get the board because I work with a lot of electrical / electronics stuff and some of it is very difficult to get and it has crazy long lead times. Just glad you’re back up and running!

[@thegr8stm8]

G’day Fred!… very timely…loved the humor.

[@FrederickDunn]

:)

[@iowalayensbeekeeping]

My 425 is 12 years older than yours. It runs for a while but never fails for the dealer. I fixed it 😂, bought a new 758.

[@michaeldenhoed758]

Your comment of watching KZbin and think I can do this is like be and beekeeping 3 years and I can come through winter with 100% servival. Your video helped keep my bees alive. There is lots of good videos on here

[@FrederickDunn]

:)

[@jimhughes6794]

Six months ago, you couldn’t spell mechanic, now you are one! You did good. Who would suspect a complete panel failure when you have no diagnostic equipment.

[@FrederickDunn]

I don't mind admitting that I'm no mechanic :) But I do appreciate your comment :)

[@dennisbarney869]

You are really good at bees. LOL We cant know every thing.

[@FrederickDunn]

:)

[@randybrocka1941]

That story sounds very familiar!😅 we will be mowing before you know it😊

[@enricotoesca3941]

Hello Dear Frederick 🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@abstract1dea]

Those NEC black boxes made in the Philippines are relays. D101 is definitely a surface mount diode. Maybe a lightning strike or sometimes a capacitor will open and cause the diode to short and in turn, cause the thermistor to fry. They are designed to die that way so the whole thing doesn't catch fire. I used to work on electronics in a previous life and I love working on stuff like that still. It's a lot more fun when you don't have to. And it feels good to bring something back to life that has been down for a while.

[@stgermain1074]

I just called to have my Deere lawn mower picked up. It's only a couple years old, but died last summer. I mowed my yard with the belly mower on my Kubota field tractor. But it isn't very maneuverable in a fenced yard. I need to replace the fuel filters on my Kubota, but to do it, I need to drop the mid-mount mower, and my arms are too short to reach the PTO to disconnect it!

[@FrederickDunn]

Wow, what a pain!

[@willjohnsonjohnson]

The little cube part is a diode and the flat circle thing is a thermistor. Considering the rest of the board looks good I bet replacing those two parts would fix it, but John Deere won't give you the specs for those parts. The battery light was probably indicating low voltage caused by those components failing.

[@FrederickDunn]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[@americanbeelady]

John Deere can shut down big combines remotely. So can Cat and I bet the Canadian Beekeeper can tell ya all about that.

[@beeamazzzinghives]

Fred I had to watch the whole video because being a mechanic all my life had me thinking, "not starter" because the fact you had no lights coming on the dash. When a starter goes bad the lights will come on as normal but just get a hard click at the starter from the solenoid when you try to crank it. Glad you got it fixed!

[@FrederickDunn]

Hi David, it originally all came on, and the starter would spin but not engage. It deteriorated after that. But yes, if the dash had been dark in the beginning, I completely agree.

[@NATURALBEEKEEPERSCOLLECTIVE]

Soon as you turned that Key it sounded like a chicken or should I say Cockeral haha I agree when you said you want the real stuff. Cheaper none genuine parts will never last as long and could end up costing more over the years with how many times you gotta replace them. My uncle learned the hard way when he tried to get cheaper parts for his 1970s Rokon What he thought was only going to cost him $75 turned out to be nearly $450 a year later. John Deere normally lasts for ever. Well the old ones did anyways, They havew done an awesome job on that, sounds like new as well as looks. Just listen to Fred and phone the dealership. Great advice.

[@carlsledge3868]

I have a bypass solenoid jumper I use to test if the starter and safety switches, I remove the plug wires so it doesn't start, but will spin the engine over.

[@FrederickDunn]

Yes, I've seen that method. Oh well...

[@bryanrulz3904]

I've done this a time or two myself. It's never a good idea to load the parts cannon. I've learned to backtrack from the suspected failure point and test along the chain and always start with the simple stuff. Glad you got it sorted out in the end!

[@FrederickDunn]

Agreed, the easy stuff and most common failure to start would be the safety cutout switches. This was definitely beyond my diagnostic ability. You would have probably narrowed it to the dash electronics pretty fast, I don't have that much experience as demonstrated in this video :)

[@MinnesotaBeekeeper]

The only thing we do different is running a jumper cable from the battery directly to the starter. Saves the trouble of trying to figure out if you need to pull the thing in the first place. A voltage measurement doesn't tell you the amperage at the end. Don't feel too bad they're Fred. The heat sink below the diode looked pretty lightweight. Which is fine until you get any dust, dirt or whatever to diminish the heat dissipation. We have a company here that builds heat distributive circuit boards eliminating the need for the heat sinks. You did a great job filming it.

[@FrederickDunn]

Oh well, at least I showed some possibilities. :) I should have just called J.D. right away. At least I have some fresh parts on it :)

[@angelalott9370]

My husband does but we are in Arkansas

[@tommychew6544]

Those electrical problems can be very hard to run down! I had a Murry lawnmower that I spent over a week on and a voice in my head said to trace where every wire went. It wouldn't start unless the deck was in the up position, so I pulled back about an 1/8th of an inch on the handle then turned the key and it started. I left it that way figuring it was like an anti-theft device and no would know how to start it but me. lol.

[@americanbeelady]

I would send that board to Will Johnson, let him fix the board and send it back, then you’ll have an extra one in case it happens again. Nice Kawasaki 😂

[@CraigArndt]

A multimeter is a great tool to have, it’s helped me diagnose lots of tractor and car related issues. I’d bet theres a fried stink bug somewhere around that dash panel. Hate those things, they get into everything and short out circuits walking across them.

[@thegr8stm8]

Amazing how a 50 cent component in an IC board can result in at $1300+ bill… We had same happen on our fridge… one component fried but $600 for new circuit board. Much better than $2500 for a new fridge

[@amull9426]

I had same prob was a bad ground

[@sonofthunder.]

geez hope those electronics aren't made in Taiwan, may be hard to get,....i had trouble w husqvarna 22hp rider from lowes, choke was outa adjustment, air gap on magneto was excessive,....i have zero experience, and paid for repair,no warranty,quality control during assembly ,is sub par,...but like you ive learned alot, i try to keep it working,yours looks like capacitor fried,...parts for my duramax are getting hard to find and very expensive, btw caught a swarm today ,but they flew back home,only to swarm again,this time i think i got the queen ,guessing virgin swarm...always learning,....i have a spare starter as mine wasn't bad either,its on the shelf when needed...hot standby😂

[@emmawood2784]

I made me laugh 😁

[@FrederickDunn]

Yay, I did something right :)

[@michaeldane197]

That circuit board they replaced would you know what the part number of it was.

[@FrederickDunn]

I'm sorry, I don't.

[@Ittiz]

stinks that they made the solenoid and starter one piece since solenoids don't usually last as long as the starter itself. On a side note, if you could do board level troubleshooting and repair you probably could have fixed it for a few dollars.

[@FrederickDunn]

I couldn't even diagnose that board. Expensive part for sure.

[@edwinhsingmaster9135]

Parts changing seldom teach the worthly lessons. Start with a digital Volt/Ohm meter, check in several spots. Static battery voltage 12.60 min., key and lights it should read 12.3v after 15 sec. is close, of your battery's dead. Lots of " new" batteries are dead. New is not "bought it last week"!

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks Edwin, none of the things you've mentioned would have fixed the problem. And the battery is excellent. Thanks :)

[@TORTmentor]

Pot burnout! and smoke came out your capacitor lol

[@mschroed99]

Just another reason to dump Deere and become a happy Kubota owner. I despise my X770 Deere, I mean just to change the battery is rediculous.

[@FrederickDunn]

I'm also not a fan of that battery location. But it's served me well all these years, I'll hang on to it.

[@rickwarner516]

Wrong in so many ways, crazy