6v Cutout relay question

Copeland

Member
Hi, Guys. Last week, after taking the great advice given here, I switched wires the way y'all said to get my 1946 Farmall H back to the way it should be for 6V positive ground. Now I'm ready to polarize my generator, but I'd appreciate if I could ask a question first. I'm attaching a picture of my cutout relay on top of the generator. As you can see from the attached picture, on the side with two poles, the one on the far right is marked GEN and goes to the main nut on the generator. The empty one on that same side is the F pole, and nothing is attached to that. On the other side is just one pole, and it has no marks at all on it. I'm assuming it is the BAT, right? I traced the wire on that single pole, and it goes to the ammeter. So, here's my question, because I've seen two different things suggested here. Do I just do a jumper on the cutout from the GEN pole and the one on the back that goes to the ammeter to get the polarity to positive again? Or, as I've seen posted in other places, do I put a jumper from the GEN pole directly to the positive terminal on the battery itself? I have never done re-polarity before and don't want to fry anything, so I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me the proper way to do this with a cutout like this one. Thanks, as always, for your help. Jeff
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GOOD you posted a photo. Simply jumper the two two terminals on the cutout with wires attached to them for a short time. Should see a spark. Since you are not only polarizing the generator m but actually REVERSING it's polarity (personally) I'd repeat the process two or three times. May not be of any added help, but certainly isn't going to hurt.

You DEFINITELY want the generator to be prepared to charge (+) ground instantly at startup.

(I'm curious, did you ever look at the IH official electrical manual I posted a link to that details polarizing?)
 

I had this saved on my computer from quite a while ago, maybe others can confirm it's correct

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Hi, Bob and Joe - thank you for the advice. I'll try jumpering from the GEN pole to what appears to be the BAT pole right on the cutout itself. Bob - I did see your diagram, and it helped me a great deal - thank you for that. I was just asking about the best way to polarize because I saw several posts that said to jumper from the GEN pole on the cutout all the way back to the positive post on the actual battery itself. Doing the jumpering right on the cutout will be much easier. Thanks for letting me know. I'll give this a whirl! Thanks again -- and everyone stay well! Jeff
 
(quoted from post at 13:18:39 03/31/20) Hi, Bob and Joe - thank you for the advice. I'll try jumpering from the GEN pole to what appears to be the BAT pole right on the cutout itself. Bob - I did see your diagram, and it helped me a great deal - thank you for that. I was just asking about the best way to polarize because I saw several posts that said to jumper from the GEN pole on the cutout all the way back to the positive post on the actual battery itself. Doing the jumpering right on the cutout will be much easier. Thanks for letting me know. I'll give this a whirl! Thanks again -- and everyone stay well! Jeff

If the charging circuit is intact you will see a spark as you polarize the generator by jumpering the cutout terminals.

If NO spark, there's an "open" in the charging circuit between the cutout and the battery, or the generator is "open".

Certainly nothing "wrong" with polarizing using a lead all the way back to the battery, though.

But the "lead from the battery method" doesn't confirm that the charging circuit is intact.
 
Jeff, by the time we get through you're gonna be a whiz on this lol

FYI so you will know what you're doing in addition to how to do it.

You can Polarize a Generator by jumping direct from the hot UNGrounded Battery post to the ARM post on the genny.

NOTE on your picture it looks like that top blue wire should be down from the ammeter and have hot battery voltage, right????
The other bottom wire should connect to the Gennys ARM post, right?? (Cutout Relay is between BAT and GEN/ARM terminals)
The Yellow wire to FLD on the Genny should go up to the light switch where it gets a ground

NOTE if alls wired right and in working order the wire to BAT on the relay could serve as the hot UNGrounded battery post and the wire on the other side of the relay often labeled GEN or ARM can serve as the ARM post on the genny THEREFORE if you jump from BAT over to GEN/ARM that should polarize and you should get a spark if alls wired right and in working order.

NOTE Both the Genny and VR or Cutout Relay need a good ground. The gennys FLD post gets its ground via the Low High charge
light switch

NOTE Polarize BEFORE starting

If the ammeter is wired right and working if you turn lights or ignition on not running it should swing over to - discharge and then when running at fast RPM if alls well it should swing over to + charge

Hope this helps. Be sure the genny and relay and the light switch all have good grounds

John T
 
Thanks so much for the excellent advice. I'm going to try everything tonight and see how it goes. I'm keeping fingers and toes crossed. Thanks again. You guys are the greatest! Jeff
 
Hope its okay but from the looks of that picture (that actually your tractor) I wouldn't be surprised if some connections were resistive or the relay may not be up to par or the genny brushes and commutator and hold down springs may have a problem ????????? Often there's a poor ground due to rust up at the light switch grrrrrrrrrrrr

Hope not and that alls well, LET US KNOW

John T
 
It worked!!! Yippee! After following the advice here, I was able to switch back to positive ground, get the generator repolarized, and she runs great! I do have to admit I got quite a spark when I jumped the BAT and the GEN on the cutout - scared the snot out of me. If it will work, I'll attach a video of it running. Yes, I know the tractor looks like heck because it was stored outside for so many years, but she's a runner now. I'll worry about the cosmetics later on. I do have one question: I checked the coil, and it has plenty of juice. The generator also showed good current. The cutout works fine. Still, when I revved her up, the ammeter needle went just slightly left of center, showing a slight discharge. What in the world could this be if everything above checked out fine? I have a four position switch - should I have moved the switch up a notch or so - I heard somewhere that the four position switches should be in different positions when these 6v positive ground tractors are running. Am I wrong about that? Thanks again for the help. I couldn't believe how quickly she started up once I had the wiring right!
 

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