[Farmall] RE: More M electrical problems

[Dean Vinson]

> The starter motor on my 50 M seems to have quit, and there's something 
> going on around the starter switch that I don't understand.

Got the starter motor fixed.  The battery cable post had gotten broken off
inside, probably due to somebody overtightening the nut, probably me.
Several weeks ago I had assorted issues getting the tractor started, and
part of that process involved cleaning up all the cable connections and
making sure everything was good and tight.  I imagine I either broke it then
or made it worse if it was already bad, and it's just been hanging on in
barely the right position ever since.  Anyway, the local electrical guy does
good work and I carefully put the starter back on, and don't expect to have
any more trouble with it.

Meanwhile, the starter switch itself is clearly bad also.  I tried to start
the tractor after I'd put the starter back on, and it cranked but the cloud
of smoke and glowing red hot metal down by the starter switch made me
reconsider my approach.

The tractor was still outside and I wanted to get it under cover before
tomorrow's projected rain, so I took all the cables off the switch, put the
tractor in neutral, and just held the end of the (-) battery cable against
the end of the starter motor cable.  Tractor started right up, so now it's
back inside where I can remove the switch and mess with it later.

Hell of it is, now I'm wondering if I could have ruined that switch by
overtightening the cable nut on it too?  It looks like I can get the thing
apart pretty easy once it's off the tractor, so we'll see what it looks
like.

Dean Vinson
Dayton, Ohio
www.vinsonfarm.net