changing 1953 John Deere tractor to negative ground

I own a 1953 John Deere AR. I want to put electric power steering on the tractor. The tractor is 12 volt positively grounded but the powering steering unit is negative ground. How do I change the tractor to negative ground?
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Good question "How do I change the tractor to negative ground?"

Here's my method, others may do it differently ??? This assumes a generator charging system and a coil distributor ignition.


1) Swap ammeter leads side to side otherwise it would read backwards.

2) Reverse coil leads side to side so + receives voltage from Ignition switch when ON while - wires to distributor.

3) Install battery at Negative ground

4) Polarize Generator BEFORE starting by using a jumper wire to momentarily flash jump from BAT on VR over to GEN/ARM.

That's how I do it.

John T
 
Alternator or generator?? If an alternator you need to replace it with a - ground one. If a generator good chance all you need to do it polarize the system for - ground
 
Hi john T.
You helped me several yrs ago with wiring problem. So good to hear from you. I tried to e-mail you with this question but address was not valid now.
Thank you for your response. Should I change out voltage regulator? older ones may not allow to flash and change polarity.
thanks RH
 
i thought about hydraulic, no room on steering shaft for steering motor other wise cylinder have to go putting it on turing arms. Need pump and reservoir also, this all detracts from tractor originality
I hope to use electric steering motor for dune buggies and ATV. May be just small enough to have room behind dash and gas tank to mount it on steering shaft.
RH
 
The old VR may work ?? However they are typically made for POS or NEG ground and last longer if you have the correct unit. I've seen them not get changed and still work a long time.

Good to hear from you again

John T
 
Richard,

Ron O,neil had an article in Green Magazine that dealt with adding a simple cut out relay and rheostat to provide a constant voltage for the EPS (electric
power steering) . See "The tractor doctor" GM August 2018 and September 2018.
 
Info off "YT" archives...

Subject: Re: 1955 Ferguson TO35, Power Steering?? ....SATURN ION ELECTRIC CONTROLL AND INSTALLATION

Below is info as entered in the "YT archives by the Gentleman who installed a SATURN Electric Power steering.

As you read through my posts you will notice that I am a Dutch-a-fied country person. The way I write a sentence may be hard for some people to understand. If you don't understand something please just ask me.

To start with the steering system has been installed at this time. I am finishing the wiring right now.

I started thinking about installing an EPS (Electric Power Steering) system after trying to drive my tractor around the house. So, I Google d ?electric power steering? on the internet.
What I found really excited me so I read everything I could find on line about this subject. I checked ebay and found the steering unit that I am using now. My unit is out of a 2005 Saturn Ion, normally you would need the computer out of the Saturn to help operate the EPS. But there is a small control and rheostat that is listed or ebay that will operate the EPS and it is listed in the same area that the steering units are listed.

My unit cost me $130.00 and the control cost about $70.00. The control comes from Portugal but don't worry this guy ships the controls right away. He will also send you a complete set of instructions.

My control took 4 or 5 days to get to my mailbox.

To start the alteration I removed the the steering wheel and the complete dash housing. Next the steering column was removed from the top of the transmission. The steering rod and screw was not removed. At this time I sucked the old fluid out of the steering box and installed about a quart of new 90 wt oil.
Hello to all and Merry Christmas, I want to thank everyone that has offered me some words of wisdom the past few months regarding my 55 Ferguson. I have installed a new engine in it and it runs great.
I am going to post a BEWARE sign right here about the following upgrade to my tractor.
If you don' t like to see old tractors altered please close this page now.
I will be altering the dash or cowl or whatever you may call it on my old tractor so I can install an Electric Power Steering (EPS) system.
I knew the tractor steered hard when I bought it but I never realized it would wear me out in such a short time. My tractor has a front end loader that adds a lot of weight on the front wheels therefore making it hard to steer.

This project took me about 3 to 4 weeks to complete. I started looking at some old used power steering systems that were on other tractor. I decided I wasn't going to spend the money for
a labor intensive and high maintenance hydraulic unit.

I goggled EPS and I found some 2002 to 2007 Saturn EPS units and a video on how they installed their EPS.

I will be writing in this post and adding pictures as I get time, please bear with me.

First thing is for me to learn how to post pic's on this forum.
Next, there were two dash housing supports that connected the dash to the steering shaft housing. I used the right support which also held the choke rod, made it longer and bent it to fit to help support the dash housing.

On the left side I just made a new support and bolted it on. This made the dash housing very sturdy.
Both supports are bolted through a steel tube that is manufactured in the steering unit. See the last picture, the tube is just under the output steering shaft and above the sleeve lying non the workbench.
The next step is the steering wheel.

The steering wheel attached to the old tractor steering shaft by way of a tapered hole and key way. The new steering shaft has splines and the OD of it is .625. The steering wheel was bored out to remove the tapered hole, that made the ID of the steering wheel .812. I next turned a sleeve with an ID of .625 and an OD of .812. The sleeve was pressed into the wheel and tack welded on one end.

I wanted to make sure the steering wheel was nice and tight and not wobbly. So I welded two .375 x 1 inch x 2 inch pieces of steel to the outside of the steering wheel hub. I then cut out a .250 slice between the two pieces of steel. This makes the hub a clamp that will grip the steering shaft. Since there are no splines in the hub I drilled a small hole through the hub and shaft and tapped in a roll pin.
I added a piece of 1.5 inch ID fuel hose on the steering shaft below the steering wheel.
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i have not pulled the hood to measure the space between dash and the housing that contains worm gear and length of steering shaft from dash to worm gear housing May have to extend the hood to accommodate steering motor.
let me know if you try it and your experiences.
 
I need to go to auto junk yard and find Saturn electric steering motor and measure the dimensions. Looks like I need to make changes to the hood to make more room for unit.
What is the name of the control and rheostat you bought?
RH
 
Is there any reason you cant just tap power off the battery at the proper polarity?
If the steering unit has a "hot" and a "ground", you should be able to do that. If it grounds thru the metal case, then this method wont work.
 
I have one question about your set up for EPS. You do not list having a electric control unit, ECU, literature for my ESU states the EPS controller sends info to ECU according to the position of the knob on the EPS controller. How do you solve this problem?
I plan to use EOP unit form Nissan Sentra
Rich H
 

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