Ignition Switch is either Battery or Distributor How??

rgrimard

Member
I have a 1942 Farmall H I would like to replace the Ignition Switch. Both Steiner and YT have the
push-pull Ignition Switch and the description on these switches specifically say it's for a "Battery" or a "Distributor" setup.
My Question: What determines if you have one type or the Other?. I have a battery and I have a
Distributor... the Distributor does have a Wire going to the +Positive side of it back to the Switch, it might be
obvious to others, but I would like to know what makes the determination ??.
Here are the part numbers for both. YT #R2720 Steiner #IHS382
Ron (Maine)
 
mag switch has 1 terminal and grounds mag to kill ignition. battery switch has 2 terminals and feeds battery voltage to ignition coil. if battery was fed to mag it would burn out mag and run down battery among other things. a mag switch hooked to coil would keep engine from running and run down battery
 
Magneto switch has one wire terminal and grounds the wire when pushed in. Distributor switch has two wire terminals and breaks the electric circuit when pushed in.
 
Leroy notice how slow I type, didn't see a answer to post when I started and getting close to 3 minutes later when I noticed you had the answer covered.
 
I sense some confusion her! A battery ignition would be the same as a distributor, a magneto would be different and have the one terminal switch, right?
 
You can use a distributor switch on a mag. You run one wire from mag to one terminal of switch and a wire from other terminal to a ground. I have did this several times till I could get the correct switch.
 
The IH mag & dist switches look the same except for one difference. The mag switch has one terminal and the dist. has two terminals.
 
Great Comments and Thank you ALL for taking the time to reply.......however...!! I don't(as far as I know for sure)
have a Magneto in my setup.. the "Abbreviations" in the replies that are offered makes me go to the Dictionary
so can you spell out the Word as opposed to the abbreviations just so that I know what is being said.?

If I buy a Push-Pull switch with only 2 terminal screws (and I don't know anything else) am I connecting
the "Battery Switch" or a "Distributor Switch for Ignition? Steiner and YT sells one or the other type of switch and I don't know which System I have.
 
If a IH distributor it would look like this picture on top. Round coil on top may look different from a replacement sometime. This battery ignition system has a wire from switch to coil terminal. other coil terminal has a wire to distributor. Magneto will have no coil on top and just one wire to ground magneto for shut down on a 42 model. You could run into a magneto someone rigged a external coil on or a distributor in a 12 volt system that has a resister in wire from switch to distributor. If so ask some more. 42 H came with a magneto but may be changed.
a249493.jpg
 
I just looked at the ignition switches as advertised on this site and they show both switches, one for magneto system and other for DISTRIBUTOR (battery ignition). It does explain it pretty well so one should be able to determine which one they need.

The whole problem exists( and this is one of my often expressed pet peeves) because everyone seems to refer to a BATTERY IGNITION system as being a distributor. Well, if you look at the magneto used on these multi cylinder engines, you will clearly see that the magneto does indeed have a distributor on it. How else would you distribute the spark to the individual cylinders in the firing order. Many engines with magneto's or battery ignition do not have a distributor because either they are single cylinder engines, wasted spark engines, or individual ignition on each cylinder.

I think that if the parts were listed for magneto equipped or battery ignition equipped engines, there would be a whole lot less confusion for all involved. Not likely to happen though.
 
D.Slater Appreciate your helpful Photo that you attached, and the extra effort !!very nice.
I would say in comparing your attached photo that this is very similar to what my current configuration
looks like. I will re-visit my existing wiring from the switch to the Coil and/or Distributor and if it
looks good to me,,,,I will Search for a good Battery Ignition Switch, and go from there!!. This is
a Great Forum and everyone that has replied has helped me diagnose this issue...Thank you!!..Ron
 
Hi Pete.....can you send me the "Link" or "Topic" where the Ignition Switches were advertised on this site
so that I can also read the Explanation.
I copied your sentence from your rely.... "It does explain it pretty well so one should be able to determine which one they need"............thank you Ron
 
I just went the parts site right on left side of the page. It showed three different switches if I remember right, didn't look again now. One was universal and other two were replicas of original switch.
 
(quoted from post at 06:01:45 12/06/17) Hi Pete.....can you send me the "Link" or "Topic" where the Ignition Switches were advertised on this site
so that I can also read the Explanation.
I copied your sentence from your rely.... "It does explain it pretty well so one should be able to determine which one they need"............thank you Ron
Here is the link to ignition switches, (H model here) . Page on down until you get to the ignition switches.http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/c...mp;md=H&cat=Electrical System&r=mcats
 

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