12 Volt Conversion gon bad

Sorry, I couldn't resist...sheesh I can be a bad boy.

Many modern cars are wired so that the main power to the ignition, accessories, etc feeds through a fusible link, usually near the alternator, instead of connecting to the battery post or the starter solenoid.

The astute "pick your part" junkyard shopper can obtain an alternator complete with a fusible link and heavy guage charging wire. Clip the harness carefully to obtain the wires you want, but make it look like you just mindlessly hacked away with wire cutters and barely know what you are doing. The nice man at the parts counter will just charge you for the alternator and ignore the bonus wires.

Connect the heavy wire from the alternator to the starter solenoid/start switch and thence the battery. Use some 12 guage wire to splice the dangling end of the fusible link at the alternator post to the junction block at the dash. (Instead of connecting the junction block to the start switch).

All the wiring in the tractor is then protected from gross overloads by the fusible link, except the main battery cable and charging wire (which are impractical to protect in any event).

This does create, in effect, a "4-wire alternator", which might be viewed as too complicated or unattractive to some. You can "clothe the unsightly" with some red spiral-wrap and it almost looks stock.

If you have a side mount distributor and a 12 volt coil, you don't need a resistor.

If you have a front mount distributor and a 12 volt coil, you need a 1/2 ohm 10 watt resistor (Dell, am I right about the ohms and watts?) in the wire to the coil. If you don't use a resitor you will eventually burn up the coil.

Good luck,
Danny

On new ammeters, the poles are the connection point, and mounting point.. but they use gromets usually, to isolate the poles from the frame / dash. The old loop style ammeter had the poles only as mounting points, and the charge wire went through the loop, and was measured inductively... If you are still using the loop ammeter, and you connected to the poles.. ther eis your problem...

Soundguy

I would reccomend a fuse ( or self resetting breaker ) for headlights.. many cars use these breakers.

Any auxilary power you are running .. like out to an implimint.. like a sprayer... i would fuse that line.

You could also fuse the charge line, in the form of a fuseable link. Put it in the charge line coming from the voltage regulator ( or alternator.. depending on your setup ).

This provides you good basic protection, where none otherwise existed.. may protect the alternator too. Pretty much the starter and battery main cables are the only things not protected at this point... and that is generally acceptable for tractors...

Good luck on the rewire... hope you didn't kill anything.

If you need more info on the wireing, write us back.

Soundguy

This is not the tractor's fault. Hire the wiring done. Hire it to someone who has won't be *learning* on your tractor.

Save yourself the grief.... duey

There are lots of folks who CAN do this stuff. If you get the right person, they will even explain it as they go.

No consolation, but a 6 volt system will sit and burn itself up if it is badly wired, too.

As pointed out, replacement ammeters do not have an outside inductive loop and instead have insulated input studs to pass the charge amps THRU the meter internal gutts. In this case, you have to "split" the charge wire with termials so everything goes thru the meter gutts.

As with all ammeters, it is sensitive to the direction of current flow. By convention, all ammeters display battery charge as a (+) meter reading, wheather positive ground or negative ground, wheather 6 or 12 volts. If your meter doesn't conform to convention (+) for charge, just re-thread your charge wire the other direction thru the ammeter loop.

And 'nutter' thing, your 12 volt alternator internal solidstate gutts ABSOLUTELY DEMAND negative battery ground..... ....respectfully, Dell..... .a 12 volt advocate for the right reason, who hasn't found the right reason for his eazy starting 6 volt '52 8N.

Maybe you answered your own question: you're "still 6-volt." Me too.

That said, the poles of the ammeter SHOULD NOT be connected to ground in any way -- certainly not a "Dead short" to ground.

Normally, there is an insulating grommet arrangement on the ammeter connection posts. This is so you can connect the wires without causing them or the posts to come into low resistance electrical contact with the bracket or ground.

It is possible to make a coil that runs directly off 12 volts with no resistor. Or it is possible to build a "12 volt" coil that does require a resistor. Most likely, you have the former and don't need a resistor -- particularly if you bought a "Pertronix" electronic ignition kit complete with coil.

As my Grandpa used to say: "It's just a d@mn machine". It works according to the principles of science and physical laws. You can figure it out. It isn't "out to get you", nor possessed by demons.