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Phil, I converted my 48 8N to 12 volts over 2 years ago and have never been sorry. The reason I converted was that I have a number of cars that I don't drive as often as I should and the batteries always seemed to be down when I tried to start them. The 8N is easier to maneuver around than my car or truck. Sooo, I wanted to convert to 12 volts to have a 12 volt source to jump from. First off, I went to a junk/salvage yard and told them what I wanted to do. They went out and pulled an alternator off a mid 70s GM for $25. It was the 3 wire Delco 10si. I also got a top bracket from them for free. The bracket has a hole in one end and a slot in the other and is slightly curved. I bought a piece of 3/16" x 1.5" flat stock to use to make the bottom bracket. At the junk yard, I also bought a 12 volt battery for $10. They checked it and gave me a 30 day garantee on it. I also bought a roll of 10 gauge and a roll of 12 guage wire with a couple of boxes of crimp connections. I was now ready to start the conversion. I pulled the generator with its brackets and the regulator off. I used the flat stock to make 2 brackets using just a hacksaw and a drill. These brackets went on the bottom of the alternator and the block where the generator mounted. The bottom mounting of the alternator was excatly the same width as the mounting on the block. After making the 2 brackets, I used 2 3/8" bolts to mount the bottom of the alternator to the block. I used the free bracket I got from the junk yard for the top bracket and used one of the timing cover bolts on the block end. The pulley on the alternator was too small for the belt on the 8N. I went to NAPA and told them what I was looking for in a pulley. They had a box full of old pulleys from alternators used as cores. I found one that was supposed to be used for a serpentine belt that was the same width as the belt on my tractor that fit my "new" alternator. They gave me the pulley for free. Maybe I was lucky, but everything lined up when I put the pulley on. Next I completely rewired the tractor, one wire at a time using the 10 and 12 guage wire and crimps. When I got to the wires that had gone to the generator, I used this wiring diagram I had drawn up: 
All of the wiring diagrams I could find were for side mount distributors. They did not look right to me for my front mount distributor. So, I drew my own. I used a marker lamp from Wal Mart. There are a number of ways to go here, but I went with the marker lamp because it is easy. After rewiring it, the only thing left was to get the correct voltage to the original 6 volt front mount coil. I went to the auto parts store again and took my volt/ohm meter. I got them to pull several resistors. I bought 3 resistors, a 1.2 ohm, a 1.6 ohm, and a 1.8 ohm. When I got home I used each in series with my original ballast resistor to see which would get closest to 3.5 volts at the top of the coil with the points closed. The 1.6 ohm worked for me. As I said, this was over 2 years ago and I have been very happy with the conversion. I never fails to start in cold weather and I can jump start my vehicles with the tractor. My total cost was about $50 for everything. As someone else here on the bourd says, "Your results may vary!" Good luck,
Danny
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