[AT] 3020 generator project

[Dean Vinson]

Bill, no, the fuel gauge does work.   Looks original but must have been replaced with a negative-ground gauge at some point?   I’ve seen them available on line, advertised for use when converting from positive ground/generator to negative ground/alternator.   Also, the coil wire that feeds the distributor is attached to the coil’s negative terminal—which as I understand it is correct for a negative-ground system but would not have been how the tractor left the factory.  I speculate that the original owner (a large farmer with a lot of tractors) made the conversion to negative ground for simplicity in charging/jumpstarting procedures.

 

When I bought the tractor in February the fuel gauge dropped to zero when I shut the tractor off but read “Full” anytime the tractor was running.   At first I thought, “Wow, how nice, the seller filled the gas tank for me,” but after a while it became apparent the gauge never read anything *other* than Full even though I’d used the tractor enough it couldn’t possibly still have been full.    Looking down through the fuel tank filler neck I could see the float stuck at the top, so I prodded it with a stick… at which point it immediately fell all the way to the bottom, and then the gauge read Empty no matter how much gas I put in the tank.   I bought a new sender, and when I got the old one out it turned out to be completely gone, the bottom half of the float completely corroded away.   Not sure how it got stuck in the Full position like that… tractor must have sat for a long, long time with a full tank I guess?   Anyway, with the new sender installed the fuel gauge works fine now and I didn’t do anything to the gauge itself.

 

I haven’t yet looked at the regulator to see if it’s marked for positive or negative ground, but that’ll be my next step. 

 

Dean Vinson

Saint Paris, Ohio




 



 







 

From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Bill Brueck
Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2024 4:12 PM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: [AT] 3020 generator project

 

Dean, I had deleted our thread but it occurs to me…did you mention that the fuel gauge wasn’t working?  I expect that would be polarity dependent.  When you’re ready to tinker with that, try reversing the battery and see if the gauge wakes up.  Indeed, reversing the battery might stabilize the charging issues, too.  You’ll need to polarize the generator before you start the engine.

 

B²

 

Bill Brueck

Pine Island, MN USA

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