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Grounding question

D

drastic dave

Member
Traded for a John Deere 520 it has an alternator, should it be positive ground or neg? Right now it?s neg ground. Starts and runs ok but I thought the old Deere?s were pos ground.
 
The original 6 volt system was positive ground. Most alternators are negative ground so during most conversions to 12 volts, changing the electrical system to negative ground is part of the conversion. The leads on the ammeter have been swapped or it would read backwards and the primary coil leads should have been swapped. The starter doesn't care, it only turns one way.
 
The original system on a 520 was 12V not 6.
But they were positive ground. Waterloo tractors
were positive ground until '69. Would be hard
(more pricey) to find a positive ground alt.
You might reverse the ammeter leads and go on.
 
My '53 Model 60 came 12v pos. grnd., it uses a generator. It had been switched to neg. grnd. when I got it. It is a simple matter of polarizing the generator, switching the ammeter leads and the coil leads. Unless specifically ordered, all alternators are neg. grnd. HTH
 
Your Question "it has an alternator, should it be positive ground or neg?"

ANSWER It should be whatever ground the alternator is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That being said most alternators are NEGATIVE GROUND. The tractor was originally POS ground but when switched to an alternator it may well have been converted to NEG if the alternator was such. If its now NEG ground the ignition switch should feed the coils + and the coils - goes to the distributor. The ammeter leads need switched if it was converted so it doesnt read bass ackwards lol

John T
 
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