[AT] Make repairs or payments

[Scott Williams]

Amazing that it was running along all that time with most of these problems.
On a 1995-or-so John Deere 425 AWS (all wheel steer) I had some little
module went bad, and it would stop running whenever it felt like it.  No
gradual degradation of running condition over decades, just *quit*.

Scott in Snowflake AZ

On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 2:50 PM, John Hall <jtchall at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> I've heard it said before, you are either going to make repairs, or make
> payments. Applies to anything I suppose, houses, cars, and especially
> OLD TRACTORS.
>
> We've got two Farmall Super A's. Both run 15-20 hrs a year. One is on
> dedicated sickle mower duty (cutting hay), the other spends most of its
> time hooked to a PTO drive Allis hay rake. The rake tractor has been
> getting hard to start, so decided it needed a going over this winter. I
> pulled it in the shop for presumably a new battery and cleaning up some
> connections--starter would barely turn over. Well the battery is 9 years
> old and even though it load tested just weak enough to be classed weak,
> I didn't want to fool around with it so I bought a new one. Before I put
> in the new battery, I decided to test some voltage readings. I had just
> over 6 volts on the old battery, 6 at the starter, and 6 at the coil.
> The moment I engaged the starter, voltage to the coil fell to just over
> 3 volts. We happened to have a newly rebuilt starter on hand (its been
> here for a few years actually) so I put it on. I think the old one is
> drawing too much current. I actually ran a temporary hot wire straight
> to the coil and it only dropped voltage to around 5.5 when starter was
> engaged. While I was at it, the hot wire from the starter to the
> ammeter, and the wire from switch to coil both had bad insulation. The
> wire to coil actually snapped in half when bent. So I made new wires
> there, and from the amp to regulator and back and replaced one wire from
> generator to regulator and wire from coil to distributor. Basically I
> left one wire from the generator to the back of regulator and the light
> wires. While I was at it I decided to check the plug wires---good grief
> the coil wire was practically gone. The end that went in the coil was
> broke in half and corroded worse than a battery cable. The spark plug
> wires looked like they had been arcing in the cap. Going to use a plug
> wire kit and make new wires--I'll take the time to solder the ends on.
> Going to put in a new cap and rotary button. The points and condenser
> are less than a year old, I'll leave them. Probably put in new plugs.
> Hopefully with an oil change this one will be ready to go. I'll check
> rear end grease levels as well and air up the tires.
>
> Get this one done and there are only 4 more to go!
>
> John Hall
>
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