jcronk

Member
Hello: When attempting to stay true to original colors, which items on a Farmall H (1945) would be other than red color?

The one I'm working on received a abundant spray of red over everything 40+ years ago. At the moment, I have the generator/voltage regulator apart. It looks to me that the generator was most likely red but I think the voltage regulator may have been black. I can see fairly shiny black under worn out red.

I would be pleased to learn what should NOT be red on this tractor.

I did have the 10 year old re-assemble all this today for practice. It will need to be dismantled again, as the bushing and bearing both allow some play on the shaft so when I get those, the kid can learn another useful lesson.
Cheers,
Jack
 
I seem to remember seeing a video once of tractors being painted at the factory. Everything on the tractor got hit with red paint. I think even the wires were on it. One of the joys of electrical work on old equipment is that the manual tells you what color wire goes where...then you get to the equipment and they are all red.
 
Originally the steering wheel, face of the amp gauge, the distributor cap/plugwires, rear axles, were masked, or tubes were
put over them. Then everything was sprayed while assembled. It was not pretty it was not glamourous, it was expedient. If
you want real authenticity. The radiator was black with red overspray on it. Rear wheels were not on, but I think the
fronts were with no rims or tires. not a 1000 dollar job. Jim
 
I remember 'em pretty well when they used to come into Hillsdale on flatcars on the RR in the later 1940's They were painted like janicholson says, the heat and oil pressure gauge faces were mostly clear of paint too. The styled Farmalls had sort of a charcoal black canvas seat covering over jute padding until about 1949, then they had silver coarse canvas like material over foam rubber padding on the seats after that. Usually C, H, and M model tractors got one set of primer painted wheel weights, all the weights for the tractors on the load were strapped down together along with the big drawbar nut wrenches, individual oily gunny sacks with the attaching bolts and some hand tools, IIRC. I think the PTO hitch plate was bolted backwards on the loop drawbar or in the gunny sack. I can't remember how they capped off the mufflers. Of course the rear wheels were on dished in position and slid in all the way with the tire tread backwards. Fenders were on them too, or at least came with them because they were required here in Michigan and on our new '50 H, the extensions were on it when it was delivered to us. Funny, it seemed like they changed the muffler design about every 2 years or so too. The "good" repro's we get now are like the latest versions. And the Monroe type seats and adjustable width front wheels were on most of the tractors after about 1948. That's all I can think of right now.....
 
Originally the generators & starters were furnished by Delco-Remy. They came from Delco Remy painted black. Farmall works over painted them red when the tractor was painted, but took the time to mask off the tags.
All replacement starters & generators came painted black from Delco-Remy. Most repair shops painted them black as well, so given they have been re-paired/replaced quite a few times over the years, either color would be considered "correct".......
 
(quoted from post at 19:40:25 03/26/16) Originally the generators & starters were furnished by Delco-Remy. They came from Delco Remy painted black. Farmall works over painted them red when the tractor was painted, but took the time to mask off the tags.
All replacement starters & generators came painted black from Delco-Remy. Most repair shops painted them black as well, so given they have been re-paired/replaced quite a few times over the years, either color would be considered "correct".......

He said he wants original colors so he must paint some stuff black before it is installed.

Most of it never saw primer.

Then have at it with the red paint.
 
the dist cap amd wires and steering wheel and rims were not red, along with the guage faces. rest was like it was dunked in a big paint can.
 
Along with what has already been said, the sediment bowl and magneto housing were not painted. Although the wires were painted, the connectors were masked. The spark plug wires were sort of masked, overspray usually covered more than not.
 
(quoted from post at 18:40:25 03/26/16) Originally the generators & starters were furnished by Delco-Remy. They came from Delco Remy painted black. Farmall works over painted them red when the tractor was painted, but took the time to mask off the tags.
All replacement starters & generators came painted black from Delco-Remy. Most repair shops painted them black as well, so given they have been re-paired/replaced quite a few times over the years, either color would be considered "correct".......

This makes sense for what I am seeing. The starter and generator are originals, so they would have been factory sprayed over the black. They will end up red on this H. Thanks, Jack
 
(quoted from post at 23:10:36 03/26/16) Along with what has already been said, the sediment bowl and magneto housing were not painted. Although the wires were painted, the connectors were masked. The spark plug wires were sort of masked, overspray usually covered more than not.

This also makes sense for what I am seeing. Thanks, Jack
 
They must have been better at painting at the factory than I am. I always have trouble getting paint on all those hard to reach places as I paint the tractor assembled except for sheet metal, radiator, seat,
and wheels. I don't know how they got behind some parts as they seemed to be painted when we used to work on tractors that had never been repainted.
 
Most hard to reach places on this one will be okay as most of the attached parts are being taken off and re-built (Doing that as a learning excercise for the kid who needs to gain some mechanical skills beyond being an expert on video games). With all the stuff off that gets in the way, we should be able to spray the rest easily enough. Tractor will not be split. Transmission and engine are functioning well. So far it has a very shiny red starter motor and oil filter case. Cheers, Jack
 
(quoted from post at 09:48:39 03/27/16) They must have been better at painting at the factory than I am. I always have trouble getting paint on all those hard to reach places as I paint the tractor assembled except for sheet metal, radiator, seat,
and wheels. I don't know how they got behind some parts as they seemed to be painted when we used to work on tractors that had never been repainted.

What makes you think they did? :)
 
Here is the voltage regulator as it is being cleaned to be re-painted. Originally black from Delco Remy but became red a long time ago.

Underside of voltage regulator showing overspray
34489.jpg


Disassembled voltage regulator. Rubber seal cleaned and treated. Soft and supple now as the day it was assembled in 1945
Red paint stripped away leaving some of the original black from Delco Remy factory
34490.jpg


The seal stood the test of time. The internal components of the voltage regulator look like new
34491.jpg
 
not a voltage regulator!!! It is the same shape, but is actually a cutout relay and constant charge resistor. The device
was used when the tractor had no lighting system and only had to recharge the starting battery. The coil and contacts are
used to "shut off" the generator when the engine is shut off. When the gen turns it makes enough voltage to latch the
relay. As long as it charges, it will keep the armature connected to the amp meter. When the engine stops the voltage goes
to battery voltage, and the relay opens. This prevents the gen from burning up, and the battery from discharging into the
armature and taking the battery to full discharge. The coil of wire inside is a field resistor that when hooked up to the F
terminal causes the gen to put out a low charge rate to refill the battery. If the tractor had lights, the light switch was
used as a control for charging with a different resistor for low charge, and a direct grounding of the field to cause high
charge. Positions were L low charge, H high charge D dim lights and high charge, B bright and high charge. Jim
 
Thanks. Now there's an education for an old back yard mechanic. I'll have to study that for a bit to fully understand. Learn something new everyday. Again, thanks. Jack
 
Instead of "regulating" the voltage (charging rate) , it cuts in CHARGING, battery builds up, it cuts out NO CHARGING, Thus... just the one set of contacts. The charging rate is determined by how far or how close the third brush is set inside the rear of the generator.
This one mounts to the top of the generator known as a "cut out" relay.

Later on the late H's & early Super H's they had a 6 volt "voltage regulator" these has two sets of contacts inside. One for the "cut out" the other to regulate charging rate, thus voltage "regulator".
 
Thanks. That makes sense to me and it is mounted on top of the generator. I will take a pic of the brushes and see what you think. Regards, Jack
 
This shows the armature end plate and the spacing between brushes. What do I learn from this? (I do know that the bare wire needs to be covered. The cloth insulation pretty much disintegrated when I dismantled the generator) Cheers, Jack

34647.jpg
 
35912.jpg


Well here it is now. Has first coat of red. Each piece done separtely. The cutout relay seal was treated and is soft and supple again. The assembled unit will be sprayed, allowing for a bit of red on the seal and nuts etc hoping to end up with a bit of an overspray look on some parts. Then the tape will be removed from the tag. I do have the leather for the generator but still looking for a band. The hay wire used to hold the leather did not seal out years of dirt, which was quite a pain to remove.

QUESTION: Not being an electrical guy, how do I set the 3rd brush? Do I need a gauge to see the charging rate?

Thanks,
Jack
 

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