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400 at state fair update

S

SW EM

Member
Well guys, despite the interesting
conversation my last post created, I got
my 400 running today.

What I has to do was get rid of my 6v coil
and resistor and swap it for a 12 volt
coil with an internal resistor. The
tractor popped right off. I never had to
swap the battery or charge it. What I
believed happened was my resistor got wet
because of the way I placed it next to my
coil. So this was a learning experience
for me.

I appreciated all the positive posts about
my dilemma. It is great to see all the
restored FFA tractors and machinery. Of
course every one of them has help along
the way. Some may have more than others,
but it's like that with everything, no
matter how old you are.

I'm headed to Iowa State next week to
study Ag Engineering, so I will be posting
more answers than questions for sure.
 
Man, thank YOU! I have my resistor sitting out in the weather, never had a problem, but I"m gonna do like you. Thanks.
 
Glad you got it running.

Good choice on entering the Ag Engineering field. I got this degree nearly 20 years ago and have worked in the industry ever since for the same company. Although many of my colleagues have Mechanical Engineering degrees I am attracted to the AgE-degreed candidates when doing interviews because it is often a sign that they have spent time getting their hands dirty around a farm. A successful farm equipment engineer (actually, any good engineer) has the ability to put themselves in the shoes of the person who will one day be using the machine that today exists only as a CAD model on the computer screen. There is no better way to gain this ability than having experience with using, servicing, and repairing similar equipment yourself. I wish you the best as you work towards your goals.
 
Glad to hear it was an easy fix. I had been wondering how you made out. I wanted to get there to check out the tractors. However, too many other commitments to get there.

I have seen pictures on here of a guy mounting the resistor up near the alternator. Makes for a more stock appearance not having that darn ballast resistor hanging out by the coil. No need for it to be there. I have always thought they looked bad there.

Sorry you got such a hard time here. Forget about it. Just weed out the junk posts. Don't give them the time of day. Be the bigger person.
 
Thanks Brian! I'm going to try and get a pic of all the FFA tractors, but I doubt I can get them all in the frame! Maybe next year you can come see them, my brother will still be showing.
 
Yea, I was talking to a guy at church about all the tractors. He was there last week. Said it was amazing to see the quality restorations and some of the super rare tractors. He had guessed 75-100 tractors. Any idea how many?

Good luck at IA State BTW. Ag engineering. Good for you. Look me up at Deere in a couple years when you are interning in Waterloo.
 
I don"t understand how a wet resistor could keep it from firing. The current should go through it, heat it up & it would be dry quickly. I think you had something else wet that dried out while you messed with it. Maybe John T can explain?
 
I tried to start it today before I made the coil change and it wouldon't start. After I changed it, it popped right off. I know, it shocked me too.
 
Hi Glad you got it figured out, you didn't need the hard time from here. Pleased your heading into my field of work, But I will give you a good tip for the future.
work as hard as you can and before you hit 40, Get a job as shop manager. I have been fixing, and doing some farming work before I left school.
Now I have hit 40 the physical damage to bashed fingers,back and knee damage is catching up. If I had stayed in the dealer shops, I would be supervising the younger guys doing the heavy work, and just doing mostly mental stuff.
Kinda thinking I might not be moving around to well even before I retire in 20- 30 years. Be careful enjoy your time, you will meet some interesting people during your career if you stay with it. I could write an interesting, and funny book about my time and all the good, odd and indifferent guys i have met.
Regards Robert
 
Two possibilities come to mind.
1- if the connections have been out in the weather for some time, there might be weak contact from corrosion, & the last rain session caused just enough more corrosion that the circuit failed.
2- more likely cause. I remember back in the day of full service gas stations. It seemed to be a problem on Chrysler Corp cars. They mounted the resister high on the firewall, centered. If it was raining when the pump jockey opened the hood for oil check, etc, water running down the hood would hit the hot resister coil. PSSFFFT! Time for a new resister block.
my 2 cents
Willie
 
Do they really still call that major "Agricultural Engineering" at Ames? I thought they had slipped the word "biological" or something of the sort in there. It was just a short 60 years ago this fall that I headed off to Lincoln to study Agricultural Engineering. I chose Ag. E. because that curriculum was accredited at NU and M.E. was not. Like Brian, you could look me up in the Waterloo area too, but I retired from "Uncle John's Shop" many year ago.
 
(quoted from post at 02:28:13 08/14/14) Two possibilities come to mind.
1- if the connections have been out in the weather for some time, there might be weak contact from corrosion, & the last rain session caused just enough more corrosion that the circuit failed.
2- more likely cause. I remember back in the day of full service gas stations. It seemed to be a problem on Chrysler Corp cars. They mounted the resister high on the firewall, centered. If it was raining when the pump jockey opened the hood for oil check, etc, water running down the hood would hit the hot resister coil. PSSFFFT! Time for a new resister block.
my 2 cents
Willie
Click to expand...

My thought too, a quick minute with a meter would have found the problem right away.
 

Where I worked we had both AgEs and MechEs. I worked in the engineering lab and the AgEs were the most down to earth guys to work with because they always seemed to have more common sense... good luck with your future degree.
ISU is the next best thing to K-State... I have a lot of relatives with degrees from there.
 
Not a flame!!! The new coil will not have an internal resistor. It will be designed for 12 volt to 15 volt continuous operation. The Windings are of finer wire and more of them. This provides similar total magnetic field density, while keeping the amp draw through the points at 3 to 4 amps. The reason for the confusion is that some coils indicate "for use with external resistor", others say "no external resistor required" These imply the concept that there are internal resistors within some. Not the case. Jim
 
I am a mechanical engineer who grew up on a farm in So Dak. I worked for 34 years at 3M before retiring. Any engineer that grew up on a farm has a real advantage over city kids. I worked for several bosses who looked for new engineers with a farm background. City kids only knew the calculations and how to solve problems in the book, while most of the guys from the farm could apply what they learned in the books. Roger
 
As your handle is IH fan I take it you may have worked for IH. Product engineering I presume. Ever work with a guy named Vaughn Nelson?
 
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