[Farmall] Step one: Stop being an idiot

[birddog]

Well, Dean, You fessed up.  Could have gone with the Readers Digest 
version and simply stated that you found a bad connection and fixed 
it............and that would have been a true statement.  I have often 
been told that it takes a good man to admit his own mistakes.

Charlie V. in cold, windy and a little rainy WNY

Dean Vinson wrote:
> Oh for Pete's sake.
>
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>
> But I'd left out part of the story.  When I was warming the tractor up on
> Wednesday, I'd been happy to see the ammeter, lights, generator, and
> regulator all working.  But just as I was about to park the tractor to
> change the oil, the ammeter jumped to full discharge and stayed there even
> after I shut the engine off.  The generator itself was very warm to the
> touch, so I thought "uh oh, must have shorted internally" and I disconnected
> both the BAT and L terminals on the regulator.  That stopped the drain on
> the battery, and I forgot about it while I went ahead and changed the oil.
> Figured I'd get that done while the oil was still warm, then look into what
> was causing the short.
>
> So I still need to fix that short, but have spent all these hours cranking
> and checking and cleaning and poking on that tractor, and never thought to
> connect the wires from the BAT and L terminal back together.  The regulator
> doesn't need to be connected for the ignition system to work--but those
> wires need to be connected.  BAT and L are common inside the regulator.
> Ignition circuit flows from the battery though the ammeter to the BAT
> terminal... then back through the L terminal to the light switch and the
> ignition switch.  Disconnecting those wires isolated whatever the short is,
> but also left the ignition switch with no juice whatsoever.
>
> So this morning I put the 6V battery back in and, as several of you have
> suggested, checked the ignition circuit starting at the beginning.  About 30
> seconds into it, got to the nice shiny new (disconnected) wires at the
> regulator.  Hooked them to each other, pressed the starter, and the tractor
> fired right up and runs like a top.
>
> So, time to go look into that short, and see if it's really something with
> the generator.  I'll try hard to rule out the stupidity factor before
> posting any more questions... 
>
> Dean Vinson
> Dayton, Ohio
> www.vinsonfarm.net
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