Couple general questions on 6V Positive ground electrical

[sleuth]

1. What are some impacts of having a positive ground versus negative ground for battery charging and other maintenance? I bought a 6V battery charger the other day and the instructions say hook up the negative clip to the negative terminal and the positive clip to the engine somewhere. I was visiting some other forums today and most everyone said positive to positive and negative to negative regardless of ground, so it's a little different.

2. How long should the tractor have to run before it fully recharges the battery?

3. I have a battery tender labeled for 12V which I use on my lawn mower. Am I correct in assuming you cannot use a 12V tender on a 6V battery safely?

Background, I have rust in the fuel tank that I think is causing my tractor to frequently die and/or be hard to start. Runs and sounds great when it's going otherwise. However, it frequently dies and I'm constantly cleaning out the carb bowl. Until I get time to work remove, clean, & do whatever to the tank, I need my battery to carry a full charge. Hence the questions.

 

[ultrarunner]

Most new chargers will only work on the voltage specified.

You do need a charger with 6 volts.

Always connect negative to negative and positive to positive and positive is 99% the red cable.

The reason the caution against connecting directly to the battery terminals is the remote chance of a spark and hydrogen gas... I did have a battery explode on me once... it was loose in a customers car and all I did was wiggle it and ka-boom.

A fully charged battery should go for many hours with only the ignition circuit.

I had rust problems in my tank and years ago we would seal the tanks with a sloshing compound which worked great until the new formulated gasoline dissolved the sealer... what a mess.

Tanks can be boiled out or you can pull the tank and let is completely air out and put some lengths of chain or nuts, bolts into the removed tank and shake it around... did this on my Model T tank.

Some have also made up an extension for the pickup so it extends above the bottom of the tank to minimize the sediment at the bottom.

Worse case you could also add a universal tank somewhere???

The good thing is you have identified the problem!

 

[8N Ren]

Clean your carb and tank out, what ultra said about nuts and bolts works pretty darn good. It's a really good idea to get yourself a carb rebuild kit and clean up the whole thing. If I were you I'd leave the 6 volt charger on overnight, lowest charge setting for 8-10 hours should be plenty.

 

[sleuth]

Tanks can be boiled out or you can pull the tank and let is completely air out and put some lengths of chain or nuts, bolts into the removed tank and shake it around... did this on my Model T tank.

Some have also made up an extension for the pickup so it extends above the bottom of the tank to minimize the sediment at the bottom.

I'm going to have to go on youtube and see if I can find a video of someone cleaning out the tank as you describe. I would like some kind of coating to seal in the rust if one exists.

I'm not sure I follow on the extension idea??

 

[sleuth]

Clean your carb and tank out, what ultra said about nuts and bolts works pretty darn good. It's a really good idea to get yourself a carb rebuild kit and clean up the whole thing. If I were you I'd leave the 6 volt charger on overnight, lowest charge setting for 8-10 hours should be plenty.

Yeah, I plan to do a full tune-up including a carb rebuild, replace a bunch of wiring, change fluids, etc. real soon. Got a bunch of projects in the queue, unfortunately. Trying to get them all done before starting anything new.

 

[flusher]

My 1951 Minneapolis Moline BF tractor is 6V positive ground. I had the Hercules engine rebuilt a few years ago. When I tried to start it, the engine barely turned on 6V. I rewired for 12V negative ground and used the same starter. The engine spun normally with the 12V starter.

Hercules engine run no 1 29jun2012 - YouTube

The starter will work fine on 12V negative ground since it has heavy windings to handle the high current at 6V. The bendix engages faster on 12V and there's the possibility of damaging a tooth on the flywheel ring gear. So far this has not be a problem. Fingers crossed.

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. positive to positive, negative to negative. and do get a 6v charger.

 

[ultrarunner]

The gravity fuel pickup on my old Ford is at the bottom of the tank with a petcock.

I removed the petcock and press-fit a length of copper tubing 3" long with a fine mesh brass screen attached to it...

This prevented the stoppages because the fuel did not come from the bottom of the tank... the bad part is usable capacity is reduced.

FUEL SHUT OFF TANK VALVE Ford Tractor 5500 6600 7710 7600 8210 E2NN9N024AA

 

[Soundguy]

the original taps have a screen on them as well.