[AT] shop time

Ron Cook ron at lakeport-1.com
Sun Feb 1 07:56:38 PST 2015


Yep.  I just love those old three brush systems on older tractors. Very 
easy to keep on line.  Just a little maintenance occasionally and it is 
not very expensive.  When they are working all the time though, the 
fields really should be able to go through the resistor so you can 
reduce the charge rate.  Easier on battery and generator.  Trouble is, 
operators fail to "regulate" the fields themselves and end up with a low 
battery.  I have a couple out there running "full field".  No comebacks 
like you get with a voltage regulator on an old tractor.  They can be 
simple to fix too, but I don't make housecalls.

Ron Cook
Salix, IA
On 2/1/2015 8:39 AM, jtchall at nc.rr.com wrote:
> With more to do than time to do it in, I’ve had to draw the line at waiting for warmer weather to begin winter maintenance. I get dad to cut the heat on in the shop about mid afternoon so it is comfortable enough to get some work done before supper. It took all week but managed to get the master cylinder and brake equalizer rebuilt on his IH 454. As for now they appear to be working, had a little more trouble than we anticipated getting them bled properly.
>
> Saturday it was time to pull the Farmall M in the shop, it had quit charging. Since it has a magneto, no big deal as long as you didn’t cut it off with a weak battery. I can hand crank it, but the mechanism to do so is generally too gunked up to turn free.  The field had already been grounded years ago to make it charge. Checked for broke wires, no problems there, time to look at the generator. I had a buddy stop by and we pulled the band off that covers the brushes. Polished that section of armature real careful with fine sandpaper on a stick with it running. Pushed on a couple of the brushes and it charged for a split second. Pulled the generator and took it apart. It was a very greasy mess to say the least. I guess the majority of it was the residue form the brushes. Cleaned all that up, greased the bearing, checked conditions of wires etc. The brushes are worn very bad. Put it back together anyway. Had to free up the adjustable pulley so we could tighten the generator belt. Put it back on the tractor, still not charging. Grounded the field again, still not charging. Noticed one of the brushes was so worn it  it was not making contact. Loosened the screw and slid it away from the tensioner a bit, jackpot, its charging. I’ll pick up a set of brushes this week and hopefully call this problem fixed. Going to leave the field grounded, been that way for a long time. Looks like I can change the brushes with the generator on the tractor. Also have a new off/on switch coming for it. Seems everybody wants $50 for one. My grandmother bought this tractor new so I don’t want to disrespect it by sticking on a $5 switch from a parts house. The starter and generator and magneto all came on the tractor, of course all have been rebuilt, but never exchanged. This tractor hadn’t been cranked for 2-3 months and cranked very easily in 35 deg weather with the 6 volt system barely spinning it over.
>
> John Hall
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