3 1/2 days and counting

Well, I am stripping off 3 layers of paint and 43 years of gloop from the 871 tractor and 703 loader. And it is one long and slow process to get it down to bare metal and remove the gloop w/o a power washer or blaster.

And, I removed a rats nest of 12V conversion, dash lights, indicator lights, work light, fuel send gauge wires, and the standard wiring that is all just one jumbled mess of decayed wires.

Now the anxiety sets in. Can I rewire it after painting and have the fuel gauge work, and the work light work and still have it fire up?

Wish me luck. For a powder puff mechanic wannabe wiring is my worst foe.

9N'er

Maybe all you need is a simple analogy to help you with electricity/wiring. That is, ALL wiring must be in "circles" because the current has to be able to get back to where it started. For example; for the spark you must have the current/wire go from the battery through the key switch through the resistor (if needed) to the coil to the distributor points where one side of the points is connected to the frame/tractor engine (chassis) back to the battery through the ground cable for the battery. Easy?!?

The one thing that you need to remember is that some things like the starter, generator and lights do not always have the ground connection showing so you can see the return path to the battery. Sometimes it is this connection that is bad and is hard to find. A simple tester for ground is a small light bulb (appropiate voltage for your battery) soldered to two wires. With a alligator clip on one end that you can hook to the hot side of the battery. Touch the other wire to the "hot" side of the device you are checking to see if there is a good ground - battery side of the starter for example - and the bulb should light if the ground is OK. Warning, sometimes the ground is only poor and the bulb will light because it does not draw a lot of current but when you draw a lot of current (like the starter will) the connection acts like it is bad. This is not a common occurance, so you should not be too concerned with it.

Regards,
Larry

I am feeling much more competent about the ignition system.

I have been giving this some thought too.

I'll take it a layer at a time...meaning that:

1st layer. wire the ignition system and get it to start and run.

2nd layer. Once I can start it then I'll draw attention to the light circuit.

3rd layer: charging light.

4th layer fuel level gauge.

One layer at a time...one circuit or circle at a time.

Just looking at the wiring diagram and the mess of wires sure is daunting. But one step at a time should help me a lot.

thanks for the advice!! Tom Moore (9N'er)

I had the benefit of having original wires on the tractor to start with so the wire colors still matched what the factory wiring diagram said should be there. That helped me be confident that I was connecting the right thing with the right thing. Of course it's hard to find a blue wire with a white tracer at the parts store. You're pretty much limited to solid colors. I tried to stay as close to original on the colors as possible. I also wrote in what colors I used on the diagram so if I ever have to trace a bad wire in the future I'll have a better idea of what I'm looking for.