Grounding

[Super A]

I'm not talking about a cub per se here but the concept would apply to it too: I have started bolting a few freshly painted parts to my Super A. I am wondering about paint interfering with the grounding of the electrical components. I know IH painted everything after it was assembled, whereas we are painting and THEN assembling. My main concern is the ammeter, mag groundin switch, light switch and fuse--pretty much everything on the instrument panel. Am I going to have to do some scraping to get metal-to-metal contact between the instrument panel and tractor chassis, and between the panel and the switches/fuse/gauge? Or can I just bolt up and forget it? FYI, the battery was normally grounded to the instrument panel, but I am going to carefully route the ground out the same slot in the bat. box as the + cable, and ground it direct to the tractor frame.

What say you??

Al

[artc]

need to watch out for the grounds with lock washers, etc.

i think i would try a flat braid ground strap and use the mounting bolt inside the battery box for a ground to the chassis. that works well on the cub, and is neat in appearance.

[Jim Becker]

Grounding of the panel matters to the mag grounding switch if so equiped. It also matters to the light switch only if you have a cut-out system where the light switch controls charging rate. Otherwise it makes no difference to any standard items. You start putting in aftermarket oil gages or something and you are on your own.

A flat braid ground strap to one of the panel mounting bolts might work well.

Artc,
The only bolts from the inside of a Super A battery box go through the back into the panel. One of them is used for the stock ground cable. The rest of the bolts go in from the outside after the box and battery are in place.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Amp meter doesn't need aground, and head light switch only needs one if you have the 4 position switch to control charge, which I assume you do since you mentioned mag kill switch. One peoblem I've noticed using the flat braided cable inside the battery box to go to a mounting bolt is that the battery is a very tight fit in the box. When the front is put on it tends to clamp the braid between the front and battery, flattening it and giving it a frayed appearance. something to keep an eye on over the long term.

[Bill V in Md]

Paint is a very poor conductor, and some paints are actually insulators. You will get a much better ground connection if it is unpainted.

[Super A]

Grounding of the panel matters to the mag grounding switch if so equiped. It also matters to the light switch only if you have a cut-out system where the light switch controls charging rate. Otherwise it makes no difference to any standard items. You start putting in aftermarket oil gages or something and you are on your own.

A flat braid ground strap to one of the panel mounting bolts might work well.

.

Jim,

That was sort of what I had in mind. Now on the Super A there are two bolts, I wanna say they are 5/16, that go into the top of the torque tube and hold the instrument panel in place. If I clean one threaded hole up, REAL GOOD, and make sure the bolt head is nice and clean and shiney, will a grounding strap at that point be a good enough ground? My instrument panel is primed/painted pretty heavily inside and out, and there will be a nice layer of pretty red paint between the panel and the torque tube. Also, what gauge copper wire would substitute for a flat braided strap? Was thinking that might conserve space.

Al

[Bigdog]

A number 12 or 10 gauge wire will more than carry any necessary ground current and still be unobtrusive. In fact, a 14 gauge would probably do.

[Wireharness]

Super A, C, Super C, 100,130, all use the same ground cable inside top of the battery box.
The cable bolts to the frame through the top of the battery box and is covered with braided loom fits perfect and will not affect the top of the battery box from closing properly.
We have them avaliable at all times

[Daniel H.]

A number 12 or 10 gauge wire will more than carry any necessary ground current and still be unobtrusive. In fact, a 14 gauge would probably do.

Bigdog, shoudn't the ground cable have to be as good as the battery to starter cable? After all, the current that flows to the starter must return to the battery through the ground. You might get away with one gauge smaller since the ground wire is short but I don't think a 10 gauge would ever carry enough current to start the tractor. The flat braided ground is what you usually see, it is more flexible than the round. I don't think there is room to come out the slot at the front with both the ground and the hot, especially since the hot was run through a length of hose orignally to prevent it from wearing through on the sharp edge of the box. I would grind the paint off the bottom of the instrument panel and the mating surface of the torque tube and bolt it down tight and then ground the battery as orignal. Also, grind the paint off the mounting flange of the starter and the mating surface on the bell housing to insure a soild ground for the starter. You also need a solid ground for the generator/alternator. Many of the complaints with the 6V systems can be traced to poor grounds and oxidized connections.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

I believe Bigdog was referring to a ground lead for the instrument panel, not the battery to frame ground.

[Daniel H.]

Sorry, I must have been confused. My Super A is grounded through the inst. panel. If you were grounding somewhere else then 12 or 14 should be plenty for the magneto kill switch. You would need a clean connection for the kill switch to the panel. I think they ground through the switch body don't they?

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

They do ground through the switch body, and if it is the 4 position light switch that has the Hi, Lo position on it, that also requires a ground to control the charge. The discussion was regarding adding an extra ground to avoid problems with the paint preventing the needed ground.

[Wireharness]

Only one cable comes out of the front of the box to the starter it goes thru a piece of water hose so it is not cut by the edge of the box.

The ground cable is short and made to fit perfectly so it does not have to be bent to fit.
The ground slips on to the battery post and also lines up with the hole in the frame at the same time.

[Jim Becker]

Al was considering rerouting his ground cable to exit the box along with the hot cable, to run it to a better ground.

The IH ground cable was long enough to take a slight bend just about in the middle. This was enough to bring the cable over to lie flat against the box where it was bolted.

[Super A]

Al was considering rerouting his ground cable to exit the box along with the hot cable, to run it to a better ground.

The IH ground cable was long enough to take a slight bend just about in the middle. This was enough to bring the cable over to lie flat against the box where it was bolted.

Jim is correct, in fact this is how my tractor was grounded previously-a cable from the + battery terminal to a transmission shifter cover bolt. Been that way as long as I can remember. I've never seen many Super A's that were grounded to the instrument panel as original, I never thought it was a very good practice. I have to do some measuring on my battery box but I am still thinking that I can run both battery cables through the slot on the corner of the box and carry the - cable to the starter and the + cable to one of the battery box bracket holes on the side of the torque tube. If it works "Like I want it to!" It should end up neat and unnoticable--and save having to remove so much new paint. The instrument panel has a hole on each side, at the base of the panel underneath, for the wiring harnesses to exit through, so I am thinking a #10 or similar wire for grounding the shutoff switch and the light switch will also pass neatly through. What's the best way to hook my ground wire up to the switches?

Al