Farmall M Battery dying

Isaac313 · Aug 5, 2015

Hello,

First post here.

I've been helping a friend of mine with his 1951 Farmall M quite a bit lately, and he took the battery box out, and the top of the tractor off to paint some of the frame, transmission etc...

He then proceeded to powerwash the tractor to get everything clean, and ever since then, the battery goes dead all the time and it will never hold enough charge to start it up. It's all stock with the 6 volt system, and has been running great for the last couple months since we got a new battery in it. None of us have the guts to try it, but if we tried to start it with the crank, it would run great, it just doesnt have the power to turn over enough.

Thanks,

old · Aug 5, 2015

Very simple to trouble shoot the problem. Take a 6 volt light bulb and put it in line with one of the battery cables. Does it light up?? If it does then go form wire to wire and unhook them one at a time till the light bulb goes out and that is where the problem is. Since you said he washed it I'd say he has a problem in the V.R. or some other place that has shorted out due to getting wet and now is shorted out

Mel in KS · Aug 5, 2015

As Old says and check out that the ground cable is good and connections clean and shinny. Been there a number of times.

Isaac313 · Aug 5, 2015

The VR being the Voltage Regulator?

I've heard they do go bad fairly frequently. Assuming we found this to be the problem, where would I find a replacement?

Also, does anyone have a diagram or picture of the the wire hookups on the solenoid. The small wire coming off the solenoid is hooked up to the same bolt as the starter, and not the battery side. That just seems a little unusual to me.

rustred · Aug 5, 2015

yes , i have seem them where the contacts will stick closed. i always look at ampmeter when shutting off tractor. if it goes to the discharge position the contacts are stuck together.a simple tap on it and they let go, otherwise it will drain battery dead.

Isaac313 · Aug 5, 2015

Got a phone call from my friend, even though he thought the problem existed before he changed them, he recently put new wires to the generator and coil and apparently he found one that wasn't hooked up right (he didn't crimp it or something). Charged the battery up and he said it's working now. So we'll see in a couple days how it holds up.

Isaac313 · Aug 8, 2015

My friend found a bad wire, charged the battery up and it seems to be working. We drove it around and then the engine quit running almost completely except at idle. We towed it back home and I believe he said one of the little screws on top of the spark plug was loose and when he tightened it up it started running even better than before it started acting up.

So I think it's all fixed up for now.

Thanks guys.

Farmall M Battery dying

Isaac313

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old

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Mel in KS

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rustred

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