re positive ground questions on 9n six volt

Ron/PA:
I totally agree about not jumping to the battery, and therefore keeping all sparks away from this explosive fume producing device. What I am wondering about is the “ hook the positive lead to the starter terminal, and negative lead to ground”. Due to reading this forum, I now know the starter will spin the correct direction regardless, but is that not reverse of the way one would hook it up to a positive ground system? Wouldn’t you throw some pretty big sparks hooking the positive from one battery to the negative of the other? Could someone please clarify this for me?

Thanks

Bill in WI

Get the jumper cables... hook up correctly to your battery ( though.. really doesn't matter at all here )... hooke one cable to the actual lug on the starter.. try to get the jumper clamp on the replaceable nut.. not the threaded stud itself.. you can replace the nut if it melts a little.. the stud is.. well a part of the starter untill it is rebuilt...

Choose a suitable place for the other clamp.. say.. steering radious arm. the other fellow said ground.. but he was being realative.. as in . choose a ground in relation to the starter lug.. remember.. ground is polarity indescript.. ground is in reference to a specific polarity.. for instance.. on your 6v N.. where - is tied to the isolated start switch/relay.. + is grnd... etc.

Also as mentioned .. the starter spins the same way.. reguardless of polarity. I generally make a habit of using the same 'ground' scheme on the jumpee/jumper vehicles.. i.e, if the jumpee is + grnd.. I hook up the cables the same way.. that way if there is a fault somewhere with the start switch... I'm just hooking 12 over a 6v battery and charging the heck out of it for a few seconds.. rather than hooking 12v up backwards to a 6v battery causing lotsa current to flow, as both batteries are discharging quickly...

In all of this jumping to the starter directly.. remember.. #1, be safe.. get the tractor out of gear and in neutral... don't run yourself or others over.. irony is what gets you... you can have a tractor with a battery so weak that it won't spin the engine over and start.. then you get careless, and jumper the solenoid with a screwdriver while in gear and the darn thing not only spins the machine over in gear.. but starts it.... go figure*. Next... #2.. when jumping directly to starter... don't hit the big thumb start switch... that WOULD connect battery to battery... just make sure the ignition is on.

* A little story here. we know our N's are starter interlocked.. a nice feature for a 50 year old tractor.

When i had first got my 1966 IH cub.. i figured it had many more 'safety' improvements as it was nearly 14 years newer than my 52 8N. The day I got it, I ran it out of gas in the pasture, testing the mower. It just up and sputtered out and stopped. I hopped off.. ran to the barn, got the gas can and filled her up. Swung back on, and totally forgot thit it was in gear, pto engaged, etc. I pulled the choke, and hit the starter button.. which on a 66 is centrallly located on the dash. 1 rev started the engine, in gear, with the pto/mower engaged. My throttle was still set high where it was when i was mowing... so I went from a dead stop to mowing again in less than a second... good thing the 66 had the 'comfort' seat with a back.. and not a pan seat or I would have flown off the back with the cub speeding away at 3/4 throttle. I have quite a bit of respect for that starter interlock on the N now.. and also quite a bit of respect for the whoever built the starter on the IH cub... whoever it was... built a darn good starter...

Soundguy

Please bear with me while I stubbornly persist in my (maybe now resolved) confusion.

Remember that negative/ positive stuff is realative to each individual battery. The only exception to this is keeping everything isolated... don't pull the pickup truk up so close that its bumper is touching the tractor... you are then.. addind anothe rpath for current to flow.. if you did indeed have something hooked up reverse of the tractor.. etc. Also.. you yourself.. if you have moist/sweaty hands.. or some battery residue on them.. might possible feel a little tingle on 12v if you are touching across the terminals while hooking stuff up.. doubt 6v will do it though.. just too much skin resistance..

Soundguy

I'll add one thing. When jumping just the starter, like Ron mentioned... Don't hit the big thumb switch... the cables do the complete circuit. Only one exception.. if your tractor battery is so dead that you have no power for sparks.. you will need to charge it.. or really jump off a 6v battery.. to battery.. to provide spark power to the ignition. Maybee if ya got a great functioning genny.. it might start making some power at low rpms.. but I wouldn't bet a (long) walk back to the barn on it..

Soundguy

Heres a hint: if the battery's positive (+) post is connected to the sheetmetal or castiron engine block or chassis, its (are you ready for this?) POSITIVE GROUND. Isn't that amazing? And the reason you didn't arcweld when you bumped your wrench to the tractor hood is because ground is ground and the electrons were already home.

And the reason you arc-sparked when you were tighting the battery negative (-) post and bumped the hood is because the negative post is NOT GROUND and the hood is and them electrons wanted to get home in a hurry.

And here is a SAFETY LESSON for you. When working on batterys and electrical circuits, disconnect the GROUND FIRST, and then the other battery pole and you know what? It'll never arc-spark and catch your gastank fumes on fire and burn up your tractor. Obviously, after you're through working on your electrical stuff, the LAST CONNECTION you want to make is the BATTERY GROUND. And you will NEVER arc-spark weld your tools again.

Heres another tip: electric lights don't care, positive or negative ground, they just need a complete circuit.

Heres another tip: starter don't care, positive or negative ground, it still turns the correct way to start your engine.

Heres another tip: to charge a battery wheather 6 or 12 volts, you must connect the charger (+) (usually RED clippie) to the battery (+) post, wheather positive or negative ground, donnna matter, (+) to (+). And conversely, connect the charger (-) (usually BLACK clippie) to the battery (-) post. Understand?..... ....respectfully, Dell