53 NAA - battery hooked up wrong

John-MO · Apr 25, 2014

Hi, have a 53 NAA, took the battery out for winter, reconnected a couple weeks ago and forgot its a positive ground (6-volt). Unfortunately I started the tractor and ran for a couple minutes before I realized my mistake. The ammeter was registering a negative charge. Immediately stopped the engine, hooked battery up correctly but now the ammeter reads either no charge, or very slight negative charge when engine at high idle. It usually registers a slight + charge when running. Could I have damaged voltage regulator or generator with the battery hooked up wrong? Thanks for any advice.

sunbeam · Apr 25, 2014

try polarizing the system

Royse · Apr 25, 2014

More than likely just need to polarize the generator.
A quick search here should get you the procedure.
If not, let us know and we'll help you with it.

maxwell99 · Apr 25, 2014

Are your battery cables color coded?

If you as the tractor owner made this mistake, if anyone else works on the tractor, it would be easy for them to make the same mistake.

If the cables are not marked, you might get some red tape and at least tape the first 6-12" of the. ????? Cable.

Now I am confused which cable is the positive, no wonder you got them confused.

Good luck and stay safe,

could hooking the battery backwards cause the battery to blow up????

morris roessler · Apr 26, 2014

I'm sorry to say that I made the same mistake after putting the battery back in my 45B JD when it warmed up.Mine did not discharge,but amp meter just laid dead on zero.I polarized the generator and everything was back to normal again.Fairly sure that will work for you too!

David G · Apr 26, 2014

You should be OK, just polarize generator and go from there.

John T has posted many notes on polarization procedures.

souNdguy · Apr 26, 2014

while off, flash bat to field for a sec and see what you get once running

John-MO · Apr 26, 2014

I want to thank everyone for taking time to help me. I used a small screwdriver and touched the Battery and Field terminals of voltage regulator at same time with key on, got a small spark. I then started the engine and now ammeter is charging slightly positive. Used the NAA and trailer in doing some tree trimming this afternoon and the tractor started and ran great.
Thank you!

Royse · Apr 26, 2014

Glad to hear you're back in business. Thanks for the follow up!

souNdguy · Apr 28, 2014

next time, you don't need to have the key on.

didn't hurt anything.. but also wasn't needed. bat terminal on the vreg was always hot anyway.

John-MO · Apr 28, 2014

Thank you Soundguy. I'm grateful for the advice. I've been using this tractor for nearly forty years and for some reason forgot it's a positive ground. Three kids and sleep deprivation has that effect. Hopefully will not make same mistake, but good to know I can polarize with switch off.

53 NAA - battery hooked up wrong

John-MO

New User

sunbeam

Member

Royse

Well-known Member

maxwell99

Well-known Member

morris roessler

Member

David G

Well-known Member

souNdguy

Well-known Member

John-MO

New User

Royse

Well-known Member

souNdguy

Well-known Member

John-MO

New User

Similar threads