[AT] Farmall starter switch

[Cecil R Bearden]

I remember the old 50's model Chevrolet trucks.  They used the same 
starter switch.   You stepped on the starter pedal on the floorboard 
above and right of the Accelerator pedal.  You ususally had to jam it 
with your foot to make it work.  I really miss those old trucks.....!
As kids we would open the hand throttle a little, put it in reverse let 
out the clutch and stand on the running board to back it into the barn 
to unload hay.  After the door got bent backwards, a longer mirror arm 
was made and we learned to back with mirrors!!

Cecil in OKla




On 8/8/2014 8:13 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Dean, thinking back to my boyhood and driving my uncle's and my
> grandfather's Farmalls, I never remember being
> able to pull the starter ring gently.  It always required a fair amount of
> pull to get the starter to engage.  I guess they
> were all burned in pretty badly.  With that said I'm going to suggest to you
> that you give yours a firm tug because
> electrical connections need to be made quickly and firmly so that you don't
> get a lot of arching which is what burns
> the connectors up.   You'll never see an electrician or electrical lineman
> slowly and gently close the lever on switchgear
> with a light tug.  He throws it in and there's a reason for it.  I'm not
> saying you should abuse yours but when you pull the
> ring you need to do it with purpose and not to prove how easily it will
> start.
>
> Just my thoughts and suggestions.  I'm not meaning to be critical.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dean Vinson
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2014 10:11 PM
> To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
> Subject: Re: [AT] Farmall starter switch
>
> Been using the Super M quite a bit lately, and sure enough, the difficulty
> starting returned pretty quickly.   I'd pull the ring and just nothing would
> happen, no click, no sound, no sense that it was trying to do anything.
> That didn't quite make sense to me, assuming the starter pinion gear was
> locking up in the ring gear teeth...seems like I'd be able to hear or feel
> some indication of that.  Then I noticed that the tractor would start if I
> pulled the starter ring harder, or jiggled it around a little.  Over the
> past several days that pattern became very consistent... no response if I
> just pulled the ring normally, but it'd start every time if I pulled hard
> enough or wobbled the rod a little while pulling hard.   So, back to my
> initial theory about the switch contacts themselves being worn down and not
> making clean contact any more.
>
> Thanks to the magic of the internet and credit cards, Bates Corporation sent
> me a new switch.   I put it on tonight, and the tractor started immediately
> with just a gentle tug on the ring.  So now I'm thinking it must have had
> both problems:  Poor electrical contact inside the switch, plus banged-up
> ring gear teeth interfering with the starter pinion.   I'll see how it
> behaves as time goes by, with that new switch on it.
>
> By the way, I was impressed with Bates Corporation.   In addition to the
> switch I decided to replace the drawbar, since the one on the tractor was
> original and the holes were seriously oblonged and worn at both the front
> end where it attaches to the tractor and at the implement end.   Never
> bothered me enough to do anything about it when the tractor lived in my
> suburban garage, but now with regular use I wasn't happy with it.   I've
> looked at new drawbars before on the OEM Tractor Parts website so figured I
> could get one there, and the starter switch as well, but when I went to
> their website I saw that they just recently went out of business.   So I
> browsed a couple of other options before finding Bates' site.   Their system
> emailed me an immediate confirmation of my order, and then about 18 hours
> later I received a shipment notification email with a tracking number, and
> about 18 hours after that the new drawbar and starter switch showed up at my
> house.   They weren't the cheapest source but I'm happy with the service.
>
> Dean Vinson
> Saint Paris, Ohio
>
>> ...The spring-loaded copper contact plate inside the switch and the
>> copper post on top of the starter motor are both all chewed up where
>> they come into contact when the switch is pressed.   I assume an
>> electric arc occurs when I make or break that connection, probably
>> boosted quite a bit by the tractor’s 12-volt conversion, and over time
>> those arcs have removed enough material that the contact plate
>> simply doesn’t reach the copper post any more so the starter
>> motor never receives the “go” signal.
>> ...
>> Got to thinking, "That might just be a bit too easy," so I went back
>> out, reconnected the starter cable to the battery, and touched the
>> other end of the cable to the bare post on top of the starter motor.
>> Big sparks but no response from the starter motor--so my theory
>> that the switch simply wasn't making contact appears to be incorrect.
>> Time to take the starter motor off, but that's a task for another evening.
>> ...
>> Gentlemen, you hit the nail on the head with the idea about rocking
>> the tractor... Put  the tractor back in 5th gear and rocked it some
>> more to rotate the ring gear a little, put the starter back on, hooked
>> everything back up, climbed up, switched on, pulled the starter rod,
>> and the tractor fired right up like nothing had ever been wrong.
>
>
>
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