Farmall H Restoration Need Help

Hello All,
I am new to this forum and I am new to the classic tractor world as well. I recently bought a 1941 Farmall Row Crop tractor. It started and ran well for me at the sellers house. I got it home and it started having trouble and the controls were all getting hot/smoking. I got to looking over the electrical and it is definitely cobbled together with the 12v system being wired +ground which is impossible with an alternator. Rather than go through and try to fix 12v I am looking to put it back to original with 6v and a generator. First thing I am going to do is take the alternator to napa and have it checked as a nice starting point. Problem I am running into is knowing where to take the original generator for a rebuild or a check. I have looked all over the internet with no luck.

There was no inline resistor with the coil so I will be taking the cover off of it tomorrow. Is there a way to check it to see if it is a 12v or a 6v coil?

Any help is appreciated, thanks much.

Real good chance the alternator is bad after being connected backward. But if you are going back original, why repair the alternator?

There should be a starter/alternator/generator shop somewhere near you, just about every town of any size will have one. Take the generator to them, tell them what it fits. They can check it out, show you how it wires up, provide a new regulator. Be sure to polarize the generator before starting it up.

A good 6 volt system requires the size 0 or 1 battery cables. Everything has got to be right for it to work. You might want to have the starter gone through also, juts to be sure.

There is a possibility the ignition system is magneto. If so, it does not connect in any way to the battery!

If it is battery ignition, to check the coil, you need an ohm meter. A 6 volt coil will have about 1.5 ohms resistance across the + and - terminals. A 12 v will be around 3. With a positive ground system, the - coil terminal connects to the ignition switch, the + terminal goes to the distributor. If it has the original 6v coil, and it was run on 12 v without a resistor, the points are probably burned. Also look the coil over for signs of overheating, such as a swelled case or leaking oil.

So I had the starter checked, it came back as ok, he also took the old 6v Generator I had that came with the tractor (I screwed up and put alternator in my original post) and bench tested it. It was struggling so he tore it apart and cleaned it up. After reassembly he said it was working fine and only charged me 10 Bucks. Great guy and great business. I have a magneto system with one wire to the coil from the ignition switch. So its looking now like I need a good 6v battery and new wiring.