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Battery hooked up backwards

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a-dougk1
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Battery hooked up backwards

Postby a-dougk1 » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:51 pm

I'm going back to Kansas in June and while I'm there I'm going to do a major tune-up of my '47 Cub. I've been reading through a lot of the messages here and found information that says the '47 uses a positive ground. I'm sure that when I last hooked up the 6v battery, I hooked it up with a negative ground. I ran it for a couple of hours over several days and everything seemed to work OK.

So, will an electrical system that is supposed to work with a positive ground generally work OK if it's hooked up backwards? I would have assumed that the starter would have tried to run the wrong direction, but that wasn't happening on my tractor. If that's true, and someone has completely rewired the tractor for negative ground, what would I have to change to convert it back to it's original configuration?

Doug
"My destiny's ta get the h*ll outa here."
Henry Fonda - My Name is Nobody

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Bigdog
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Postby Bigdog » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:17 pm

Doug - the starters are series wound and will run in only one direction regardless of the polarity.
If the system was changed to negative ground, you need to check to see if the leads were swapped on the ammeter. If the ammeter deflects to the minus when the lights are turned on (tractor not running), the ammeter was re-wired. To change to positive ground, just swap battery leads, swap ammeter leads and re-polarize the system. Since it is a 47, I'm guessing it's a magneto ignition. If it has been changed to battery ignition, make sure the positive terminal of the primary winding is connected to the points when going back to positive ground.
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Matt Kirsch
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Postby Matt Kirsch » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:59 pm

Yep, can't hurt an old electrical system like that by hooking it up backwards. Worst thing that could happen is the battery doesn't charge because the generator isn't polarized properly. You'd never notice that in a couple of hours, though. Magneto ignition doesn't draw off the battery, and it almost certainly has a mag. A couple of starts isn't going to drain the battery much.

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Postby Jim Becker » Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:52 pm

Be sure to read the current thread on "Battery woes".

a-dougk1
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Postby a-dougk1 » Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:37 pm

Bigdog said:

If the ammeter deflects to the minus when the lights are turned on...


Bwahahaha...

Sorry, but I had to laugh. The electrical wiring to the lights is in such bad shape, I wouldn't even think of turning on the lights. We're talking bare wire here; no insulation left. I didn't have a multimeter with me the last time I went to Kansas, but I'm also pretty sure that the fuse has been burned out since I bought the tractor.

A new wiring harness would probably be in order, eh? :)

Doug
"My destiny's ta get the h*ll outa here."

Henry Fonda - My Name is Nobody

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Postby Bigdog » Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:59 pm

Sounds like maybe a good place to start! :)
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Postby muleboss » Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:18 pm

Where are you going to in KANSAS?


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