School of DERP - Tractor Battery

Time to mow the yard for the first time this year.  Dead tractor battery.  Well, ok, it’s 4 years old so I can see that.  I go get a new one.  

Tractor with new battery is making a ZZZZING! noise from the starter.  Odds of the starter and battery dying in unison, like lemming lovers going off a cliff hand in hand, are pretty slim.  So I investigate.  Fuse isn’t blown, but the wiring is HOT. Ask me how I know.  I do what any mechanic would do… I start Googling.

Turning up nothing, and getting more frustrated. I go out and push it up the hill into the front yard where I’ve still got some sunlight. Then I see it… the red wire is on the side of the battery with the (—-) on it. Well, the polarity of the battery and the tractor are backwards, but Wallyworld only had this one type.  So I hit up Lowes.  Sure enough, there are two amp ratings on 12V batteries.  They reverse the terminals apparently to keep you from doing what I have just done.  I really need to get a light in that shed so I can see things like this.

Battery exchanged, and it fired right up.  I was a bit concerned that I might have let the magic smoke out of the solenoid or some other bauble under there, but it seems ok.

Lesson learned.  Batteries aren’t all the same terminal outs.