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Andy Gordon
09-07-2004 09:34:55
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Please forgive the windy post, but here goes…
I have a ’52 8n that was converted to 12 volts several years ago with a kit consisting of a Delco alternator, coil, voltmeter, and wiring harness. For quite a while, it ran great – popped right over immediately, started with no choke except when it was very cold outside and consistently showed charging at 12-14 volts while running. This past spring, when I went out to start it for the first time, I found the battery dead (as expected) and all the cells nearly dry (I had never checked them). I topped the battery up with distilled water and jumped the tractor to get it going. Through the summer, I noticed that the starting was becoming sluggish to the point where you have to use the choke all the time, the starter seems to be “lugging down” before the motor catches, and the voltmeter shows charging at around 10-11 volts. I put all this down to the battery problem and ignored the starting problems in hopes that they would magically go away…
This past weekend, it reached the point where the tractor wouldn’t start, so I finally replaced the battery. Things ran well for one day (several hours of light brush hogging), although the voltmeter still showed the charge to be slightly less than 12 volts. The next day, after hauling one load of wood down form the back 40, the tractor refused to start – would only give a short grind, and then only a click, even when jumped. In the course of checking things I discovered that the diode that came in the 12 volt kit appears to have been burned out at some point. The tractor runs fine if you can roll it to get it started. Any ideas on where to begin trouble shooting or what I may have toasted?
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