[Farmall] More M electrical problems

[Dean Vinson]

The tractor is back together and everything seems to be okay.  The repaired
starter switch works fine, so we'll see how long it lasts.  I'm hoping and
expecting it to last permanently, given the light occasional use this
tractor is going to get.

I also found and fixed a short in the lighting circuit.  It had only been a
few months since I replaced all the wiring and had thought everything was
perfect, but when I went to shut the tractor off one day a few weeks ago the
lights wouldn't go off.  I disconnected them at the lamp housings to get rid
of the symptoms, but hadn't looked into it any further.  Turns out I'd let
one of my brand-new lighting circuit wires inside the switch box get pressed
up against the fuse holder, and the thin metal edge of the fuse holder wore
through the insulation on the wire and shorted to the conductor.  The wire
itself looked fine so I just taped it up and very carefully made sure none
of the wires were binding against anything as I put the box back together.

Today was also the first use of my new high-tech battery tray, consisting of
a piece of plywood with some wood strips screwed to each end to keep the
battery from sliding around, and some metal straps and a rubber bungee cord
in the center.  I painted it with a spray can of red primer so it looks
about the same color as the rest of the tractor.  Wouldn't win any show
prizes but it's neat and functional, and a big improvement over the
odd-shaped piece of carpet that was stuck under the battery when I bought
the tractor.  :-)

I still haven't made that new main switch-to-starter cable, after I struck
out at a few more places trying to find rosin flux.  But the old cable seems
to work fine, and I put some heat-shrink tubing on it to add some durability
to the quick electrical-tape job I'd done a couple months ago.  Parts of the
cable had looked pretty corroded before I taped it up, where the original
insulation had worn off, so maybe this winter sometime I'll get around to
completing that new cable.

With the starter switch fixed and the battery tray done, and hopefully not
much need to be messing around with the wiring under there any more, I went
ahead and put on the belt pulley control rod.  It had been missing when I
bought the tractor, but some weeks ago I'd found one on eBay.  It's nice to
have one more thing completed, but the new pulley rod looks a bit out of
place--it's bright red, which makes it somewhat unique on this old M.

I celebrated the completion of all this complex mechanical work by driving
the tractor down to the corner gas station and putting $20 worth of gas in
the tank.  Sure sounds good.

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
www.vinsonfarm.net