[AT] Super M generator belt / tensioning bracket

[drupert at seanet.com]

Dean,

The Hood is off of my SM so I just took a couple of measurements: the face
of the Generator Pulley is 4 inches across and the upper Generator
mounting Bracket is 6 & 3/4 inches from the center of the two holes.

However, at this point I am confused, which doesn't take much doing.  You
said the tractor was converted to 12 volts.  Was the original 6 volt
Generator replaced with a 12 volt Alternator, was the original Generator
just rewound, or??  The original 6 volt Generator was mounted to the Head
with a horseshoe shaped bracket and to the Thermostat Housing with the
upper Generator mounting Bracket referred to above.  But there is no belt
tensioning available in this mounting setup as that is performed with the
adjustable Generator Pulley.  But I am sure you already know this as this
is also the same as your' M assuming it was/is in its' original unmodified
state.

So, I am  not offering any help just getting myself confused -

Dudley

> Hmmm.  Last year I bought a 1953 Super M that had been restored several
> years ago but is still in near flawless shape.  Given the obvious
> attention
> to detail in most areas, two things seemed odd to me:  it had an old and
> rather ragged fan belt on it, and the generator tensioning bracket was
> missing.  (Tension on the generator belt was maintained just by tightening
> the mounting bolts at the bottom of the generator, around which the
> generator can pivot if the bolts are loose, since the adjustable bracket
> that normally mounts at the top of the generator just wasn't there).
>
> Last fall I replaced the fan belt, and replaced the generator belt at the
> same time.  The old generator belt looked fine but I figured as long as I
> was going to the trouble of replacing the fan belt I'd do them both on
> general principle.  Both new belts came from OEM Tractor Parts.
>
> I finally got around to looking for a tensioning bracket and found one on
> eBay a while ago, and today went to put it on.  It's inexplicably too
> short:
> Even in the "all the way out" adjusted position, the generator is so far
> in
> toward the engine that the belt just hangs loosely draped over the pulley.
>
> The tensioning bracket was advertised as being from a Farmall M and came
> with the bracket that actually mounts the generator to the tractor.
> Neither
> one has any sign of a part number on it, but the mounting bracket is
> exactly
> the same size as the mounting bracket on my tractor so it seems likely
> that
> they were indeed from an M.  The M and Super M parts books confirm that
> the
> generator brackets were the same for both tractors.
>
> The generator belt is marked "04710 Made in Mexico" and "756962".  Neither
> of those is the Farmall part number, and a Google search didn't tell me
> anything about them.
>
> So the question is, how can that bracket be too short?  Either it's the
> wrong bracket (perhaps from an H?), or the belt is too long.
>
> Or, hmmm, the pulley could be smaller than normal?  The tractor's been
> converted to 12 volt... could the restorer have put a small pulley on
> there
> to spin the generator faster as part of that conversion?  It doesn't look
> unusually small--I just went back out and measured, and the front face of
> the pulley is an even 4" in diameter.  If it's not original, it doesn't
> seem
> like it could be so much smaller than original that it would create all
> that
> slack in the belt.  So, back to the bracket being too short or the belt
> being too long... neither of which seems terribly likely.  Any thoughts?
>
> Dean Vinson
> Dayton, Ohio
> www.vinsonfarm.net
>
>
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