6V/12V Question

Mountainman (CA)

Howsomever, in the automotive/truck/tractor world, they're cheeply made and so to save money, they make the metal chassis/engine/body stuff into a conductor called, are you ready for this? They call this great big ol' metal mass a "ground".

It also simplifies the electrical systems too.

Then by convention, if the positive post of the Direct Current (DC) battery is connected to the chassis/body/engine somewhere, it is called POSITIVE ground.

Conversely, if the negative post post of the Direct Current (DC) battery is connected to the chassis/body/engine somewhere, it is called NEGATIVE ground.

Isn't that amazing? Positive ground, negative ground, so logical.

Now then, electrons are lazy suckers and want to take the eazy way home and we their task-masters want them to do some work before they do go home. And us meanies use the other side of the battery to supply electrical power to do our bidding. That is why there are starters, lightbulbs, ignition coils, sparkplugs...etc...

Now then, there are 2 ways of converting a frontmount ignition system to operate in a 12 volt conversion scheme, and a lot of ways to do it wrong.

If'n you have an OEM 6 volt frontmount ignition coil, it really is designed to run on about 3.5 volts (2.5 min, 4.0 max). Wheather the battery is 6 volts or 12 volts, don't matter, the coil requirements don't change, 3.5 volts. And this was originally accomplished by the infamous "ballast resistor" that is mounted on the backside of the dash panel.

So to make a 6 volt ignition coil work properly in a 12 volt battery system, you need a 12 volt to 6 volt dropping resistor AND you also need the ballast resistor wired together in series like flashlight batterys.

Resistors are generally ceramic blocks (about 1/2 sq X 3 long) that get very hot, burnie-burnie.

So the answer to your question, "is my tractor properly converted to 12 volts?" depends whether or not it was done as described. There are other ways, but this is the most common..... ..Dell

Both six volt and twelve volt coils exist for front mount 8N's. If you can't find a mark that tells you maybe you can find enough to track down the manufacturer or vendor and make a phone call.

The absence of any resistor other than the one behind the dash indicates something is "rotten in Denmark". What it is I can't tell you without inspecting your coil. Either call as above or hold it up to the phone.

Your mileage may vary