Super MTA ?'s

Al L. in Wisc.

Well-known Member
Sunday I snaked out a friends Super MTA from his shed, not telling him. It was up against the back wall behind some equipment including Allis Chalmers tractors. Last evening we pushed it in the shed; removed a badly corroded, dead battery and box; cleaned the plugs; then put a temporary positive ground cable on. He pulled the switch, choked it and off it ran after sitting idle for six to seven years......amazing!

Added a lot of coolant and an oil-filter change will be in order. We pulled it backwards a tractor length to free a stuck clutch and it was then under its own power.

The old girl is really dirty and oily but, with a hot shower, it is going to a tractor show this Friday to Sunday in it's work clothes. I'm gonna take a dirty, then clean photo of her. Straight sheet metal, fenders, good tires, rear weights, lights, working gauges, a 'U' shaped drawbar and a rain cap that dances...what more could we ask for!

A new positive cable is needed and we measured out the front of the box, down and back to the lower left-rear corner of the box ~ 38" - 40". This a.m. peeking at Tractordata dot com I saw a photo that showed the cable coming out the top left side of the box, a few inches from the rear and running down to the same bolt. Could someone please verify the correct route for the ground cable? Someone on his has taken a torch and cut a hole out the left rear side of the box, tain't correct at all. I 'tink' I am seeing the rear work-tail light mounted from possibly the top, right rear corner of the battery box??? This tractor's rear light was attached by a make shift bracket to the lower right rear corner of the box.

Thanks in advance for any info.
 
Should come out of the cutout in the top front center of the box. into flex aluminum conduit, straight down to cover, snake around shifter, into a couple clips and forward to starter. The manual you are going to buy shows it :)
 
IIRC the rear light on SMTAs came out on the left side and the 400/450s were on the right. Mine doesn't have one...
 
Original positive cable went to the ground. Battery was placed with the positive terminal to the rear of the tractor. Cable went from there to the rear center bolt of the transmission cover. Cable never left the inside of the battery box. Longer transmission cover top bolt and a sleeve like spacer was used in the hole inside the battery box for fastening the non terminal end of the positive cable.
Rear light was mounted to the left side of the box as you would sit in the seat. 1/2 inch pipe thread opening was in the box and a short 1/2 inch pipe stub screwed in it to mount the light on. Rear light wire stayed outside the box back to the light.
Putting a picture of the light mount. Picture is not the best and its on a SH but a SMTA light mounted the same. Stuff on the right side of the box is not original.
a123796.jpg
 
"D Slater"]Cable never left the inside of the battery box. Longer transmission cover top bolt and a sleeve like spacer was used in the hole inside the battery box for fastening the non terminal end of the positive cable.

I'm guessing the ground cable originally was a strap, correct?

This fellow doesn't want that, but then, it isn't visible so a round cable would work, providing the non terminal end is large enough. Thanks much for the input
 
Al, Yes I believe the original ground cable was a braided strap attached to the positive battery terminal. On my restored gas SMTA I have a braided cable attached to the positive battery terminal and to the top cover as noted by D. Slater inside the battery box. The problem being in doing that is the braided straps are obviously a ground cable and are currently sized to the smaller negative terminal on the battery so they don't fit down on the post very well without some additional work. My tractor has a 12 volt system using a Super MD 12 volt generator in place of the original 6 volt one used on the gasoline SMTA's, Hal.
 
Thursday I printed off the replies and gave them to my friend. "...aahhhh, I see, that is the reason for the bolt at the bottom rear of the box" he said. After shortening his old cable, he attached a new post clamp on the battery.

If someone has a rear work-tail light, could you show what the bracket should look like? Farmallhal, I know you like things original. This fellow got his SMTA hot-power washed Friday afternoon and I followed him to the showgrounds for the last few miles only; as I was busy shuttling my stuff to the grounds. Thanks for your replies folks.

And a sad aside note, there was an antique tractor pull on the show grounds Friday evening and one of the participants, age 59, collapsed and died during the event, in the staging area. Local first responders were on-scene along with ambulance personel; a medical helicopter was brought in from Gundersen-Lutheran Hospital La Crosse, Wisc. but to no avail.
 
Al, Haven't been on the forum for several days due to all the thunderstorms and other pressing needs but saw your light question last evening. I looked at my tractor which I feel is correct and agrees with the SMTA parts catalog. There is a welded threaded fitting on the battery box on the left side and a threaded straight pipe sticks out about 4.5" from the fitting. This pipe is called a rear light support (p/n 358287R1) and is probably about 5" long and being the same size pipe as the headlight light bar. The tear drop style tail/work light is secured to the pipe with the same type of hardware (clamp, spacer, lock washer and nut) as used for the headlights. The light has both the clear bulb and the smaller red bulb along with the black plastic 3 position knob for off, work light (clear) and tail light (red). The wire harness to the light assembly has two metal shielded wires, one for ground to the light body and the power or current wire attaches to a plastic terminal on the back of the light body. Hope this explains what you are looking for from an original tractor. If you have access to a Super M/Super MTA parts catalog the parts are shown very well. Have fun and enjoy the project, Hal.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top