1940 farmall A no ground wire on mageto

sald

Member
Hello,
I just joined the forum. I finally after many years of looking got a 1940 Farmall A. I ran the serial number to get the year FAA24281.
Anyway, to shut the tractor I pull the governor handle all the way back. One detent before and it idles, pull it back and it shuts. How is this working so precisely when there is no wire going to the magneto for a cut off switch?
I makes me question if something is not the way it should be. Oh it was converted to 12v Neg Ground.
Also, why does the Magneto have this strange rotating arm on it?
Thanks!
mvphoto19345.jpg
 
The early tractors didn't use a ground wire. Instead they had that funny little switch in your photo. At one time there was a flexible cable(like a flexible choke cable) connected to That switch. To turn the tractor off, You simply pulled on the cable knob and that little arm would slide backwards and doing so would contact the brass insulated nut on the condenser grounding the spark.


In your photo, The little arm is upside down. The little loop with the two screws is the clamp to hold the cable. it is very rare to find the "cable kill" switch. I have sold those switches for $65 and up.
 
Thank you!
So would you say that pulling the governor arm all the way back to kill the engine indicates something is wrong? Thoughts?
Sal
 
No, pulling the governor arm is closing the throttle inside the carburetor not allowing fuel to enter the engine. A lot of the JD letter series tractors were set up that way.
 
Thank you very much. I am sure I will have a bunch more questions and at some point be able to help answer some. I found that one click back went from low idle to completely shutting of without a sputter. Almost seemed liked an electric cut off.
 

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