Troubleshooting a Broken Headlight on John Deere 1330SE Snow Blower

I used to think that headlights on a snowblower was a waste of money. That is until I had to clear snow every 2 hours during the night to keep up with a blizzard. Without these headlights, I would have been fish out of water. This article will show you how to replace your faulty light bulbs

Purpose

How to troubleshoot, repair or replace a broken headlight on a snow blower.

Applicability

This John Deere Halogen Headlight Bulb (12 volt, 20 watt) adn Bulb Socket fit John Deere 1028E, 1330se, 1332pe, 1338pe, Simplicity L1730e, Murray 1330se and other similarly equipped models (more detail info here).

Required Tools

• Flat and Phillips screwdrivers;
• You only need a multi-meter if your new replacement bulb did not fix the problem. If you don’t own one, read my quick review of several decent ones here

Replacement Parts

There only two, user replaceable parts on a John Deere 1330SE (part numbers and links in the table below):

(1) Older (original) parts manual stated that these sockets were only available as part of a large light assembly. However, you can now purchase these sockets individually.

Troubleshooting steps

STEP # 1 – WIRING HARNESS

Thankfully, wiring connections are fairly straightforward. Since John Deere never published a technician’s manual, I manually traced the wire connections from my functional JD 1330se.

• Link to Wiring Harness Diagram for the Auger Group
• Link to Wiring Harness Diagram for the Handle Group

Compare your wiring harness against my diagrams to make sure that all connections are correct and secure.

STEP # 2 – CHECK THE GROUND WIRE

Due to heavy vibration, it is not uncommon to see loose nuts and washers. Usually, if your voltage exceeds 12v, it probably means something is going on with your ground terminal.

If you find the ground terminal all crusty and rusted out, you will need to completely remove it and clean thoroughly wire brush/vinegar/baking soda, then apply some NOALOX before re-attaching it to the engine.

STEP # 3 – CHECK THE PLUGS:

There are 4 terminal connections to 2 lights. Check to make sure that they are not corroded and are firmly seated.

STEP # 4 – CHECK THE BULBS:

Obviously, if you see some melting going around at the base of the bulb (socket), it is a clear indication that your bulb/wiring connection is bad. I would replace BOTH light bulbs at the same time.

If everything looks okay, just remember that you can’t really tell a bad halogen bulb just by looking at it so you need to use a multi-meter to test it. A good bulb should have a resistance of (almost) zero ohm.

STEP # 5 – CHECK THE BASE SOCKET:

Check the socket for any signs of corrosion and/or melting. You also want to make sure that all metal tabs are in their correct positions so that when you insert a light bulb, they will make full contact with the bulb.

Hopefully, your lighting problem was solved following these steps. Since these halogen bulbs are not that bright, fairly expensive and prone to failure, I am going to take up on one of my readers comments and do a quick project to see if I can convert my Halogen bulbs to non-OEM LED bulbs (Click here for the Converting to Non-OEM Headlights on John Deere 1330SE Snow Blower post).

FINAL WORDS

Trying to fix the bulb issue on a snow blower is like trying to find that elusive one broken bulb on in Christmas string lights. It takes time and patience.

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Thanks and good luck with your snow thrower!

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