I have 6v electrical system problems

   / I have 6v electrical system problems #1  

jeff pk

Silver Member
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Apr 28, 2012
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Tractor
1960 Ford 641 1957 Ford 860
Admittedly I'm electrically challenged, but this has me at my wits end. It's a 860 6v system---pos ground and it's never actually charged normally since I've owned it. I've been running it and then charging the battery on the bench when it runs down. So I have another 6v tractor that I'm getting parts off of and when it was running I checked the charging there and it was fine so I decided to move the generator and the VR to the non-working system, but it's still not working---and I'm getting little wisps of smoke from the back of the VR. So I think it's wired wrong, but everything looks right. Is there a simple---bare bones---explanation of what goes where? No lights, it has an ammeter and the connecting block but I can bypass those if they're wired wrong. Thanks for any help---and the simpler the better as I'm quite dense about electrics...

PS: I was sure to polarize the generator before I started it
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems #2  
The simple bare bones of what's going on is this, I would put money on the fact that you went ahead and "let the smoke" out of your VR, she's fried buddy.
Did you polarize the genny correctly before you fired up the tractor?
No lights to me would mean they either aren't hooked up, blew fuse, the switch is toast or the ground is rusty.
VR are not supposed to smoke.
Your system is different then what was on my 8N but it's close, after I fried 3 VR's @ $75 a pop and the battery was on it's last leg I switched it to 12V. I was tired of the headache and this is a worker tractornot a parade queen.
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Touched the armature connection on the gen with a wire from the negative pole on battery. And no lights hooked up---going for simple.
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems #4  
Touched the armature connection on the gen with a wire from the negative pole on battery.

Wrong answer. Batt to Field to polarize your Ford.

Replacing a 60 year old wiring harness is ALWAYS a good choice, yet few actually do it.
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems #6  
As rickb said.

you should have a B circuit gen.

best way to polarize it is to jump bat to field.

start over.

new harness. and you may bet on needing a new vr.

now. test the gen.

if this is from a 53-64 it is B circuit.

ground case ( positive ). jump bat to field and arm. it should spin. if it does. gen SHOULD be good.

field on vreg to field on gen

arm on vreg to arm on gen. grnd on vreg to grn on gen. bat on vreg to one side of ammeter. other side of ammeter to bat hot post on solenoid.

wire from same post of ammeter thatt he vreg is on to the lamp switch ( fused ). then to the lamps.

wire again, from that same side of ammeter to key switch, to coil.

that's it.

Yep. one side of ammeter has all the laods and charging. other side has battery.
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Ok. sounds simple enough for me. One question---you say "wire again, from that same side of ammeter to key switch, to coil" Does this mean one wire from ammeter to key switch and then another wire on the other key switch connection to the coil? Also, what about the single wire to the ignition button? Ok, that's two questions.

Thanks RickB and Soundguy for the help. I let you know if it works.
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems #8  
if you wire to the key. it should follow that you then have to wire to the coil.

the starter grounding button ont he trans top has a small wire that runs directly to the small terminal on the solenoid.
 
   / I have 6v electrical system problems
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Alright Soundguy. You're my hero. Seems to be charging normally w/out a new VR. It WAS wired wrong. I followed yor instructions and ended up using only one pole of the connecting block as a bridge to the ammeter, and the coil wire goes direst to the key switch. There's 7 volts across the battery when running and the ammeter goes to around 10 after it's been cranked on starting... Seems about right.

Still noticed some wispy smoke from behind VR but it stopped after a bit----I'm going to say I smudged it back there with an oily finger and that was just burning off the resister (if that's what that is back there).

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Thanks!
 
 
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