Customer bought this 1953 model off of some guys lawn with a stuck engine. Since I’m a glutton for punishment I got tasked with getting it running. Freed it up, slapped in new pistons, rings, and bearings. Put a new carburetor on it and added a new 6 volt battery and cranked it over. No fire. Got looking it over and the distributor doesn’t have points, it has a rotor button. Took off the coil. Looks newer than 1953. Says flamethrower on the side but doesn’t tell me if it is 6 or 12 volt. Shook the coil and it sounds like it has liquid in it. I assume it is 6 volt but don’t want to buy the wrong parts for it. To be honest I don’t even know if those can be upgraded to 12 volt. No good markings on the starter or alternator/ generator. So I’m asking the HEF brain trust to please educate me on this super high tech piece of equipment
It got one of these they can be had in 6 or 12 volt. If i was doing it up for a customer that isnt going to like the bill(been there with a 40 a few years ago i think tge guys wife was hunting a club when i got done telling her the bill on the phone) id put a 12 volt mini alternator and make up all the wiring use the 6 volt starter and make whatever else 12 volt unless you can find a number on it i doubt you tell what it is you got. If you use copper plug wires with these youll burn up the pick up sensor. Have to have caebon core or whatever they are wires
Does the distributor have two wires coming out of it or just one? If it has two it has electonic ignition. I do not know of any way to tell a 6v coil from a 12v coil if it is not marked. It can be switched to 12v pretty easy. Put on an alternator, use the same starter, put in 12v light bulbs, do away with voltage regulator, and switch to NEG ground ect. I would just use points, not a big fan of electronic ignition.
Something you said got my attention. This didn’t have a battery in it but the top post terminals seemed backwards. The ground was big and positive was small. I hooked the battery up with a negative ground. Am I supposed to have a positive ground? That may be my issue
Per manual # SM2013 ,it was positive ground back in the day.
Well this new piece of information may be the game changer I’m looking for
Look at how the coil is wired. If power goes in to negative terminal and out from coil to dist on positive side of coil it’s positive ground.
Yes it would have came from the factory 6v positive ground. Like Junkyard said you can look at the coil. If it still has the generator on it, it will most likely still be 6v. Putting a 12v battery in it won't keep it from running, it can just blow the light bulbs, and mess up the voltage regulator. If it is a tractor that is going to be used much I would just switch it to 12v and be done with it. It would be alot more reliable.
When you run old junk like me it's nice to be able to jump start anything with anything.
I've got a '57 ford 850 that is and will remain 6v just because that's how it came, runs often and perfect because that's how it's maintained. Does have an 8 volt battery that gets charged with a little more juice once in a while due to 6v generator, also can't find a decent adjustable voltage regulator anymore. As to previous query can tell 6v from 12 coil by testing resistance 6v 1.5 ohms 12v 3 ohms or thereabouts if memory serves me correctly. Easy enough to look up on this google tube thing.
You can get 12v coils that are 1.5 ohms or 3 ohms. The 1.5 ohm coil needs a ballast resistor on a 4 cylinder engine the 3 ohm does not. I mostly use the 3 ohm coil and eliminate the resistor. It is hard to find a good voltage regulator any more. They're all overseas junk.
Alright. Since it’s not -30 anymore I’ve got to get this gem finished. It is a positive ground. The battery is brand new but it sounds like it’s turning a little slow to me but I have zero knowledge of 6 volt systems. I took off the generator and bench tested it and got less than 4 volts out of it. I spoke with one of the few electrical repair shops left around here. He told me to ground the case and the F post and then put juice to the A post and it should spin. It did but relatively slow. I suspect it’s gone to greener pastures. I put a spark tester inline with the plug wire and I have no spark but that was done without the generator installed and I don’t know if I need it to create spark or not. Ugh. Compression ignition is so much simpler…
A 6V system will crank slower, it is half as many volts as a 12V system. Make sure that your cables and ends are good. 6V systems use heavier cables than 12V machines of the same size. It makes sure that you can have good amp flow. You need all you can get. I have not worked on generators much, but I know that you can test them that way. It won't spin real fast. I wouldn't worry to much about the generator until I got it running good. Test it on the tractor with it running by grounding the F terminal. That will full field it and if it is good it will put out it's max charging voltage. Just don't run it to long that way or it will burn up. The generator should not need to be hooked up for the ignition to work. You need to have 6V to the negative side of the coil with the ignition on and the positive side hooked to a good set of points. Hook a test light to the positive side of the coil. With the ignition on you want the test light to flash while you are cranking the engine. The points are just a switch, if they are not switching on and off good, it won't spark. Also make sure that your cap, rotor and plug wires are all good.
Don't forget the condenser, I've got a '57 Ford 850 6V positive ground, all I had to do a couple times when first diagnosing non run was to leave key on for too long (forgot to turn off) and it cooked a couple condensers. Check out the youtube for "flashing the field" on older iron to excite charging system. Just bought a new 8 volt battery from NAPA 3 days ago (last 2022 Interstate junk crapped out already) 8 volt spins engine a little quicker, especially during winter temps. There's a way to tweak 6v regulator to charge 8v battery, have a new spare in cabinet gonna try when time. Like Mr. wrench said, cable/terminal condition and cleanliness are #1 concern on these machines.
Well I figured it out. Turns out that the tractor will only start when the selector is in the I position. Engine flopped twice and sat there and idled. Whodathunk.