No electricity - what am I missing

[goldencub]

Last November, I installed a new rear main seal (Thanks, TIm!), I then fired her up normally using the battery and drove around for 15 minutes, then put her to bed in the corner of the garage for the winter. The battery went into the basement on a trickle charger. Yesterday, I took the tarp off, installed the battery (which reads 6v) and there is no electricty - no lights, no starter. This is a 1947 Cub with a magneto. So, I stuck in the hand crank and she fired right up on the second twist and ran fine - not bad, I thought, after sitting since November.

I get a 6v reading between the cable at the negative battery terminal and every ground point on the tractor that I try. Same thing between the other end of that cable at the starter terminal and any ground point I try. So, I conclude the grounding and cable connections are clean. But no lights, the ammeter doesn't show discharge when the light switch is turned on, and no starter. But it starts and runs fine with the hand crank. And for the last run of last year, she started with the battery as usual.

What am I missing?? Al D

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

connect your meter from the lug on the starter to the bolt starter is mounted to, or to one of the bolts that hold the torque tube to the tractor. Should be 6 volts there. Pull starter rod and see if it goes away. Then follow backwards toward battery till you find where it goes away. Probably a battery cable or ground, either the cable or where box mounts to frame.

[goldencub]

Thanks, John for the quick reply. The clip on my meter is too small to grip the starter lug directly, so I attached it to the flattened end of the cable that's bolted to the lug. The other meter lead I held against a starter mounting bolt as you instructed. The meter read 6v. When I pulled on the starter rod, the meter went to zero.

I'm not sure what I just accomplished. Since I didn't attach the lead directly to the lug, but to the cable end attached to the lug, did the zero reading mean a bad connection right there with the cable? And what does the drop to zero indicate when the starter rod is pulled? As you can see, I'm a little challenged in the electrical department. Al D

[Steve Butram]

It appears that your battery may be bad or you have excessive interior corrosion in your battery cable.

Try this to rule out the cable.
Attach a jumper cable to the negative terminal and the other end to the starter lug ( Bypassing the cable to the starter)and attempt to start if works better then it is your cable. If is the same then I would replace the battery.

[challenger]

Do as Steve suggests and you may as well also put the other cable on the positive ground post and attach it directly to a solid frame member. If you are using the battery box for a ground, you may have a weak connection that will show 6 volts on your voltmeter but the ground will not transport sufficient cranking amps to the frame. Using the battery box as a ground is a Cub weak spot. I really like the suggestion by a member who used the flat braided ground cable to go down the front and under the battery, attaching it to one of the bolts that fastens the box to the frame.

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

What you just accomplished is prove that someplace between where you are connected and the battery there is a bad connection that will not allow current to flow. Move to the battery posts and try again. If you loose voltage directly on the posts, the battery is bad. If good, move to terminals attached to battery and try again. If loose power there clean terminals. If good, move one lead to a bolt for ground and try again. If bad there, the ground connection is bad.

[Ben B]

I agree with the fellows on here about the cub battery box grounding. I had many problems with my 50 because of it, so I installed a strap straight to the torque tube to ground my battery, and that fixed my electrical problems.

Do what they suggest and that will tell you where your problem is. But, since you said it was fine before you stored the battery for the winter, it sounds like your terminals may just need a good cleaning. My neighbor had the exact same problem with his Gravely a couple weeks ago, and I cleaned his terminals for him and it fired right up. Terminals can look clean but still be covered with oxidation, which creates high resistance.

A little note about electricity and batteries: They can show voltage and be charged, but the CURRENT is what cranks the engine, and current can't pass through a high resistance connection very well. (like broken or frayed wires, dirty or rusty connections, etc.) just in case you didn't know.

Hopefully its something simple. Good luck!

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

A little addition to what I posted above, I had 2 batteries fail last summer, both of which were over 5 years old. One I knew was getting weak, but the other one just failed suddenly. It would show voltage until I tried to use lights or starter, then nothing.

[goldencub]

The electricity is back!! Thanks John, Steve, Challenger and Ben for your suggestions. But, I have no idea about why it now works. I got no results using both jumper cables connected to the bare battery posts. Then, fooling around with various combinations of cables and jumpers, it suddenly began to work perfectly. I used the tractor yesterday afternoon, starting it several times without any problems. The starter turned over this morning when I tried it, so maybe I'll be able to run it again this afternoon. I think electricity is a very great mystery!! Hopefully, things are now OK. Al D

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

In that case I suggest cleaning both battery terminals, and if you have the replacement ends that clamp on the cables cleaning that part too. Also clean where the ground cable attaches to the battery box or transmission whichever place it is attached. If it is still attached to battery box which was the original way, the box is probably rusty where it bolts to tractor floor, and needs cleaned there. Or another solution is to either run a cable directly from the + (ground side of battery) to a bolt on transmission or final drive, or else run a cable from ground bolt on side of battery box to an external bolt. If you do not clean the connections up good, it will come back, usually when you need the tractor the most. A way to find the bad one when it acts up again is pull the starter rod out for about 30 seconds or so then feel all the connections. The bad one will usually be hot, sometimes hot enough to burn you, so be careful doing that.

[Ben B]

You're welcome, and I agree with John. Find out why.

Electricity may seem like a mystery, but I work in electricity and can tell you that there was a reason it wasn't working.

[goldencub]

John and Ben - Everything went well today. Yesterday, before I did any fooling around with cables, I removed the battery box - both surfaces (bottom of box and top of the tractor frame were shiney bright and clean. I also removed the cable from the starter lug and everything there was also shiney and clean. I put them all back together and still got no electricity, and that's when I started my cable games. I think the problem had to be with the cable-to-battery post connections, but I don't know which one. And I don't understand why the jumper cables didn't produce results. Do you suppose one or the other of them is bad?? (Like the tractor ads that say "it ran well the last time I used it" , the jumpers worked the last time I used them!!) I'll keep my eye on the cable ends as the season progresses. Thanks again for your help!! Al D