[AT] Covid-19 Quarantine tractor project

Thu Apr 30 20:29:55 PDT 2020

A great question that I’d like to see discussed.

Most (all?) of the ammeters on antique tractors I’ve run across measure the current that the generator is providing, not the current flowing to the battery.  So you see an increase in current as soon as you turn the lights on. It’s true for every tractor I have and can remember having.

I think maybe some cars in the pre-alternator days did it otherwise? I don’t know:   it’s an interesting question.

Spencer

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 30, 2020, at 11:04 PM, Ken Knierim <ken.knierim at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Reversing the ammeter will cause the charge/discharge indication to be correct. 
> 
> However if the charge indicator increases when the lights are on, is this really correct? Seems like the lights are tapped in on the wrong side of the ammeter (once you reverse the ammeter connections). I would guess the light switch (and ignition) should be on the generator side of the ammeter, not the battery side. This should allow the generator to make up for the draw from the lights and show charge/dischage on the battery... or am I mistaken?
> 
> Ken in AZ
> 
>> On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 7:54 PM <szabelski at wildblue.net> wrote:
>> You can just switch the wires. All the meter does is indicate current flow, in both directions. When you’re charging, the needle moves in one direction, and when you’re drawing power, it reads in the opposite direction. If you don’t switch the wires, you’ll have to remember that the meter is indicating the opposite of what the charging system is actually doing.
>> 
>> Carl
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: drgerber at bright.net
>> To: 'Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group' <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>> Sent: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 21:24:49 -0400 (EDT)
>> Subject: Re: [AT] Covid-19 Quarantine tractor project
>> 
>> I had an MT that wouldn't start.  Cranked but no fire.  No juice at the coil.  Took off the sheet metal, battery, gas tank, and removed the wiring harness.  Wasn't too bad, but had some farmer engineering.  Had a Chinese made swith, with strange marks, and nothing like the one shown in the service manual.  Had 2(two) inline fuses ???  Had a couple of wires with no destination up in the dash.  I took the wire harness to the bench, and removed all the crimped bayonet clips, and soldered on the circle clips.  Tried to figure out the markings on the switch.  Hooked the wires up by my best guess.  New plugs, new points, new condenser, had the coil tested and it was good, new wires, new cap, new dust shield, Napa could not get a rotor so I used the old one.  Put all but the sheet metal back together.  Fired right up.  HOWEVER; AMP gauge appears to read backwards; slight discharge on ignition, larger discharge on the ignition w high charge position, and very strong discharge with lights and high charge position.  
>> 
>> Can I just change the wires to the amp gauge to solve the problem?
>> 
>> Dave Gerber, OH 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Spencer Yost
>> Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 8:26 PM
>> To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
>> Subject: [AT] Covid-19 Quarantine tractor project
>> 
>> So I took a break from the motorcycle tonight and moved to the 430.  
>> 
>> After I got the engine unstuck a few years ago I did a static timing of the ignition; but I never did do a running timing. First of all I had still needed to clean and adjust the carb and plus I wanted a few hours of running on it before I did a true running timing on it.
>> 
>> As you can guess, I never got around to it.  (-:
>> 
>> While the static timing  was close I got a sense of misfire at high idle.  Not a true misfire but not “right” either.
>> 
>> The 430 is an engine that you time at full open throttle, no-load RPMs.  The service manual provides PTO shaft speeds that correspond with engine speeds which is helpful because my tachometer busted probably 15 years ago.   So I opted for the shaft conversion table.   But my shaft contact tachometer was borrowed by a friend in the 90s and it disappeared( Not his fault:  he became quite ill and eventually passed and I didn’t have the heart to bother him or his widow for it or several other tools).  So I bought an optical tachometer from Harbor Freight several months back for this task.
>> 
>> I put a piece of reflective tape that came with the optical tachometer on the PTO shaft and used that table in the manual to double check idle and full throttle, no load RPMs.  The optical tachometer did fine, but as the reviews of the product indicate you do want the area to be fairly dark, and you want to be holding it exactly perpendicular to the axis of the shaft.  It also helps to brace your arm while your hold it.
>> 
>> For reasons I do not remember, I had to adjust the governor shaft when I was done unsticking the engine and preparing it for test runs. So my high idle RPM was actually dead on. But it definitely took some futzing with the carburetor to get my idle speed right. 
>> 
>> I needed to do a good bit of adjustment of the distributor to get the timing mark to come up.   I would say a 5 to 10° turn. It now idles without “loping” and runs at full throttle without a hint of that misfire sound.
>> 
>> A good day.
>> 
>> Spencer
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
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