Today I had a little problem on my new 1963 IH 806 that I've been discussing here.At the moment, this thing is wired for 24v and I believe has the original 12v starter. So, it spins that big diesel quite smartly. I had been driving it around and shut it off. When I came back a few minutes later I hit the starter. It turned over a bit and I let the starter off too early- it didn't quite start. When I pressed the starter again, I think I just bumped it, and I looked down and one of the battery terminals was arcing and sputtering molten lead where it had melted the battery clamp, which acted like a fuse. When I tried touching the now severed cable back to the remains of the battery clamp, it was like a welder- there was basically a dead short, or maybe the solenoid was stuck on. I went over and tapped the solenoid with a piece of rebar to unstick it and this seemd to work. I touched the cable to batt terminal again, and it was back to normal again. So- just to get it started so I could get home (this happen at the neighhbors farm), I vice gripped the battery wire onto the remains of the clamp and tried to start. It kindof felt like when your battery is real low- a click and shudder. But then when I let off the starter button, I was back to drawing lots of current and I quick yanked off the vice grips. I just got this tractor a week ago. And there is no charging system on the batteries yet- I've been starting it all week on the charge that was there. Tonight I put chargers on both batteries and I'll try to get her going tomorrow. I'm thinking that the batts got worn down to a point where they couldn't turn it over after a couple rounds of stuck solenoid and welding. The question is this- should I pull the starter and see if there is something I can lubricate in the solenoid? I don't know if it is possible for mere mortals to get the solenoid apart or not. Maybe just to get it going, I'll bypass the solenoid. Help!
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