[AT] How embarrassing... :-(

[Indiana Robinson]

Ever just do something really stupid?
I mentioned a day or so ago that I was getting my 4020 ready to sell
(I need the money and not the tractor) :-) . Weeeell, I had noticed
that "somehow", I don't know when, that the battery in it had gotten
hooked up reversed polarity. It had been charging fine and showed no
problems. OK, selling it, I will put it right, polarize the generator
and it will be right when moving on.
Good plan except my short term memory is gone and I saw something
bright and shiny and got side-tracked by something else and forgot to
do the polarizing... I climbed in the cab later and fired it up and
drove it across the road toward the west barns testing the shifting
and anything else I could think of. I drove it back to the shop and
parked it by the north door. Shut it off and climbed out. The big
service and parts manuals were there in the shop but I remembered that
I had an operators manual as well and went down to the old office to
get it. I walked in the door, looked in of couple of pigeon holes and
pulled out the operators manual and also found a I&T service manual. I
walked the 300' back up to the shop and realized that I could see
smoke. Picking up the pace I rounded the corner and saw smoke coming
from the 4020 and the fellow who had just arrived to look at it
reaching in the cab. He had just pulled in while I was at the office
and saw the smoke. He had the sense to open the back of his truck and
grab a pair of Vice-grips and quickly disconnect the battery cable. We
checked things out a little and he still looked at it then we went in
the shop and had a nice two hour old tractor visit. :-)
The next day I opened the hood up and son Scott came over and we
(mostly he) finally took the hood clear off and he built a new under
hood wiring harness for it. None of the rest of the wiring was hurt,
just the charging stuff. He did replace a good bit of other under-hood
wiring just because some of it was kind of hard and brittle (it must
be old)  :-)
Of course the regulator was fried. I picked up a new one today. I had
tried Rural King and TSC and they were out of them. We drove a little
farther to a John Deere dealer and he had them in stock, made in USA
and a dollar less than it would have been at Rural King.
I carefully installed the new regulator AND REMEMBERED TO POLARIZE IT.
Fired it up and it was as I feared... Dash light still on. Pulled the
generator and dismantled it. It needs brushes but the giblets are all
fine. Seems to need an armature though.  :-(  I didn't even have to
test it. Toast. That is going to hurt...
The looker is BTW, still interested.


-- 


Be tolerant of almost everything but intolerance...

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com