Questions about electrical system

"tractor was running but almost blew off the top of battery feel this is due to battery in backwards" HUH? It was running when you jumped it? You're not making sense.

"If when you take a volt meter to each side of the coil and get a reading the coil should be good right?? " What did it read? Each post to where? Ground?

Always (as you turn engine over) having 6V to ground on the side connected to distributor probably indicates points are never closing. If you put a test light on that side and crank the engine the light should blink as the points open and close.

I am assuming here you have a battery ignition and not a mag. If so, you don't have a "kill" switch, you have a power switch and the fact that you have 6V to coil indicates that it is on (or bypassed). Put the voltmeter on it and turn the switch off and on (actually that's a push/pull isn't it?)

1. Disconnect and charge the battery. Make sure your charger is connected right. Charge meter should start high, then go down after a while. Check with voltmeter when done. Should read close to 6V . BTW is your charger set at 6V? If it's already charged prolly won't "bubble" much.
2. Reinstall battery. Make sure ALL connections are "shiny, bright, and tight" or whatever that is. Don't overlook "ground" connection - pos to tractor chassis - both ends.
3. Flash the field. This educates your genny to kick electrons in the right direction. Take a wire from battery hot to armature post on genny. Just touch it to get a spark. Don't "jumper" it and leave it on. It's called flash for a reason although doing it twice won't hurt.
4. Starter should spin at that point.

Meanwhile - look your wiring over. Trace out wires. Get a handle on how things are hooked up. Search this site for "wiring diagrams" (also flash in case I messed that up).

And be glad that if I did mess up, a whole bunch of people here will jump in and straighten me out :)

I would like to add that if (and I emphasize IF) I find myself in a situation where I need to jump a 6-volt system from a 12-volt system I try to bypass as many of the electrical components as possible. The first rule of jumping is positive to positive, negative to negative regardless of ground polarity. That said, I take the jumper cables and hook them up to the 12-volt battery first. Then I take the jumper cable from the negative post on the 12-volt battery and hook it directly to where the 6-volt battery cable attaches to the starter and this may be AFTER the starter switch, I don’t care. Then, I engage the starter normally, and quickly attach the cable from the 12-volt positive post to a good ground on the 6-volt system. This should be done in such a way that it completes the circuit to the starter, and will result in a quick spin, hopefully resulting in a quick start. As soon as the engine fires, I unhook the jumper cables as quickly as possible.

I prefer to do it this way for several reasons; I by pass the 6-volt battery with 12-volts, I don’t have sparks near the vicinity of a battery that is either charging or discharging (dramatically reducing battery explosion chances), the actual 12-volt circuit is utilized primarily by the starting motor reducing voltage surge to 6-volt electrical components.

I don’t believe that 12-volts would have burned out your coil, as IH used to wire their early 12-volt tractors to actually start on 12-volts to the coil and run on 6-volts to the coil.

My penny’s worth…

I would like to add that if (and I emphasize IF) I find myself in a situation where I need to jump a 6-volt system from a 12-volt system I try to bypass as many of the electrical components as possible. The first rule of jumping is positive to positive, negative to negative regardless of ground polarity. That said, I take the jumper cables and hook them up to the 12-volt battery first. Then I take the jumper cable from the negative post on the 12-volt battery and hook it directly to where the 6-volt battery cable attaches to the starter and this may be AFTER the starter switch, I don’t care. Then, I engage the starter normally, and quickly attach the cable from the 12-volt positive post to a good ground on the 6-volt system. This should be done in such a way that it completes the circuit to the starter, and will result in a quick spin, hopefully resulting in a quick start. As soon as the engine fires, I unhook the jumper cables as quickly as possible.

I prefer to do it this way for several reasons; I by pass the 6-volt battery with 12-volts, I don’t have sparks near the vicinity of a battery that is either charging or discharging (dramatically reducing battery explosion chances), the actual 12-volt circuit is utilized primarily by the starting motor reducing voltage surge to 6-volt electrical components.

I don’t believe that 12-volts would have burned out your coil, as IH used to wire their early 12-volt tractors to actually start on 12-volts to the coil and run on 6-volts to the coil.

My penny’s worth…