Ford 950-4 Row Crop Won't Stay Running ...kinda

Hello!

We own a 950-4 row crop tractor that is used for mowing pasture. When I went to start the tractor tonight, the battery was dead. I pulled my truck up next to the Ford to jump start her. Even though the truck is 12V & the ford is 6V, I've always been told it's ok to connect + cable to + terminal on 12v truck, and - cable to - terminal on 12v truck...then I connect the other + cable to the - battery terminal on the 6v battery...hold the remaining - cable & simultaneously press down on the tractor starter & thought the - cable to the + battery terminal on 6v battery.

Tonight I did this exactly as described above and the tractor roared to life. I mowed 1/2 the pasture...roughly 30 mins...and suddenly the lights on the tractor start to dim and the tractor starts to slow down & eventually died.

Well in the truck I hopped again and drive into the pasture to park next to the tractor. Pull out the cables again for the same routine. This time I noticed what I thought was a slightly loose fan/generator belt so I snugged it up a bit. Back on the tractor I go with jumper cable in hand.

Here's the strange part. Previously when I would touch the last remaining unattached "-" end of the jumper cables to the 6v + side of the tractors battery and pressed the starter switch, it would start & keep running. This time, it ran for a second and died again. Another attempt to start this way & same problem. The ONLY way I could keep it running was when it started to die, I would briefly touch the jumper cable to the tractor battery and it would not die but pick up speed to an idle again. I could wait for 15-30 seconds for it to start to slowly lose rpm and get ready to shut off then briefly touch the cable and vroom! back to idle speed. If I didn't do this over & over it would eventually die completely.

How weird, right? Hmm. The batter is over 7 years old, and isn't used much. The amp meter showed 0 while it was exhibiting these problems...not sure if it was showing different before.

Head scratcher.....help?
 
mvphoto9545.jpg
 
The battery is dead, and the charging system isn't working. The
ignition system needs to get power somewhere. ...once the light
surface charge on the battery from jumping it is used up, it can't
make spark and dies.
 
I think the the acid leaked out of the battery
while you had it upside down..LOL
Ron
 
As Fordfarmer said, your charging system is not working.
It's a damn good thing the 6V battery didn't blow up in your face jumping it like that. Sheesh!
Someone here will tell you how to jump it the right way next time.
This is why I always suggest switching over to 12V on these old tractors.
What voltage is the battery in your wife's car, boat, lawn tractor, RV, motorcycle, hot rod, 4 wheeler or snowmobile if you have them?
Why have a machine that can't jump or be jumped by anything else.
 
Ultradog is right. You should never connect a 12 volt battery to a 6 volt battery. There is a safe way to jump start a 6 volt tractor from a 12 volt battery, but that is not it. You need to jump the 12 volt battery directly to the starter on the 6 volt tractor without touching the starter button on the tractor, which keeps the starter isolated from the rest of the system while you are starting it.
 
"I've always been told it's ok to connect + cable to + terminal on 12v truck, and - cable to - terminal on 12v truck...then I connect the other + cable to the - battery terminal on the 6v battery...hold the remaining - cable & simultaneously press down on the tractor starter & thought the - cable to the + battery terminal on 6v battery."

If I understand correctly you connected positive post on pickup to negative post on tractor and negative post on pickup to positive post on tractor. If so, this is totally wrong.

Battery cables know nothing about ground, they know everything about positive and negative. Simple rule for jump starting: Positive to Positive and Negative to Negative, forget about ground.

Also make your last connection to the frame which as far as the jumper cable is concerned is not ground, it is an extension cord for the corresponding battery post. This keeps sparks away from potential gasses around the battery.

Others are correct about dangers of 12 volt to 6 volt battery dangers.

Don't be surprised if you now have alternator problems on the pickup.
 
head scratcher?

you have battery ignition on that tractor. and a dead battery after running ..

that tells you that you have no functioning charge system

thus when you tried to explode the 6v battery by jumping it with 12v, and it started, it then dies because of no juice in the battery.

NOT a head scratcher.

quit trying to blow up 6v batteries!! migth hurt yourself.

fix your charge system!
 
Hi Guys - Thanks for all the comments! Yes, I made a mistake in the way I tried jump starting the tractor, you're all correct. Thanks for the heads-up, and the safety warning.

Also, I decided to mow the pasture upside-down so that the pasture grass would hang "down" using gravity. I figured with the grass "hanging" as such, the mower would do a much better job and leave a beautiful clean even cut. :wink:

Today I installed a new battery. Now the tractor starts/runs. Even so, I believe I still have a problem with the charging system.

I ran a "motor test" on the generator to see if it was functioning correctly. With the jumper wires correctly connected b/w the generator/ground/battery, the generator does correctly spin. Good. Generator passed test 1.

Problem. After installing the battery, now the Amp-meter still shows a big fat "0" when the tractor is running. My dad told me that the gauge previously worked, the tractor didn't have a charging problem, and that the original battery that I just replaced was good for many years. SO - this shows me that the charging system & gauge worked previously!

Assuming my motor test on the generator proved that it is working as designed, can someone help me test the next component?

Thank you :)

:D :D :D
 

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