1944 Slant Dash A instruments

spokerd1

Member
I just purchased a 1944 War Model John Deere Slant Dash A which is a hand start model. It has three insturments gauges in the dash. All 3 are so badly rusted you can not tell what they are. I know one is oil pressure and one is for water temperature, the other if it was electric start, would be an amp gauge. I know I could buy the parts manual to figure this out. But a hand start model having an amp gauge. It has no battery box frame in the hood where it should be on an electric start model. I guess I should pull the sheet metal off and trace the gauges. Thanks for the help.
 
A picture or two would help here. A '44 A shouldn't have a slant sash if it never had electric equipment, but in the early 40's you COULD get electric lights without electric start. But this one has no battery provision? Any signs of a generator mount?

It is also possible someone mounted a slant dash on a non electric A sometime after it left the factory.

You certainly have a puzzler there. And as for gauges, if an A of your vintage left the factory with no electric, it would have had a flat, stamped steel dash with only oil and water gauges.
 
I could get with the J.D. Archives and they could tell me if this one got out of the factory in this configuration. Or someone had changed it. The tractor has had two owners before me. The first owner was a President of a bank. He should of not had a need to change it. The second is a Dairyman who is a good friend and he did not change it out as he did not want to put any money into it, it even had a twisted PTOmshaft. Easy change out, not changed. It has the hand start flywheel, magneto, and no generator brackets,no switches or shows no sighs of a starter in the starter box under the tractor, no starter pull rod or a peddle . This is puzzling. I have see an L JD with experiment in raised letters on the transmission, that I found for a friend. After checking with the Dallas Branch offices they informed me that that L was not suppose to leave the factory except in a scrap metal bin, and how we found it was strange. As the serial number showed it was scrapped. Strange things happen sometimes. I am still puzzled. I will try to download some pictures of the tractor.
 
Your tractor would have the starter on top of the crankcase cover. Pretty easy to change the flywheel and crankcase cover.Hard to tell what has been changed in the last 70+ years.
 
"<font color="#6699ff">[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]All 3 are so badly rusted you can not tell what they are.[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

Take a look at the photo below of "Easy" our 46A.

a236922.jpg" width="650"




"<font color="#6699ff">[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]But a hand start model having an amp gauge.[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

Take a look at the diagram below.

a236923.jpg" width="650"


Note the conduit (Key 22).

Check under the hood on the right side ( pulley ) of your tractor for the conduit.

If your tractor originally had a generator, then the conduit could possibly still be installed.

The conduit would have had both the wire to the ammeter and the wire to the light switch inside.

a236924.jpg" width="650"


Hope this helps.
 
Even if no diagram is available it's not hard to tell where they go, assuming they are correct now. Look at the back of the gauges. Oil pressure has an oil line going to it. The ammeter has wires. The water temperature gauge has a sensing bulb going to the upper water pipe. A little deductive reasoning and you should be good to go. Mike
 
Oky here is something else. It has no belt pulley on the fan shaft, it has no holes on the engine cover to say it had a starter at one time. I pulled the battery cover and no battery mounts and no wires to the amp gauge unless you would say the spider webs and dirt dobbers nest were carring current. At one time. No light brackets or any conduit to carry wires. I need to get tne pictures off my phone and send them to this or a new posting. I think they just grabbed a dash and threw it on the tractor at the factory and shoved it out the door. Remember his isna War Model
 
I drove my cast frame, no lights, hand start, steel tag & small radiator hole in the hood A home after an admitted 8 year "rest" from being parked in the edge of a woods with an un-styled series governor on it! The hood wouldn't fit over that governor & under the steering rod, so they cobbled up a bracket, chiseled the hood dent for the steering rod back another 8" or so and used a ball peen to "fine tune" the hood clearance around the new big radiator cap!

Like mine, it sounds like some parts swappin took place in your tractor's past too!
 

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