deere 301a charging sstem fixed...woo-hoo!!

finally got the 301 fixed. special thanks to 8850 dave for his help and the use of his manuals!! also to bob for steering me in the right direction. tractor would not charge and the battery and oil pressure lights would stay lit even with the ignition off. wiring was a rats nest. tractor uses a prestolite charging system, similiar to chrysler or amc. at some point in the past a jd reman alternator was put on. i got a new v-reg from deere, old one was burned. also a new reman alternator. the alt came in yesterday but had an external regulator mounted to it, along with a bracket that held two diodes, which the orig alt did not have. mechanic at deere said the new alt fit several styles and i could remove the vr and diode plate and install as such. did that and the dash lites still came on. apparently the original alt had the diode set internal, and the new style used the external diode set. put the external diodes on and wha-la.....all is good. cleaned up the old wiring harness, removed the butt connectors, scotch locks and the twist and tape connections, soldered, liquid lectric taped and sealed with heat shrink . the aux terminal on the alt feeds the charge and oil pressure lamp. heres some pics.

old alternator

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wiring harness yuck!!

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under dash....yuck again!!

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new alternator ...note lower bracket with two diodes

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engine harness clean up

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under dash clean up

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woo-hoo!!!! charging!!!!

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all that is left to do is change the hydraulic fluid and filter, engine oil and filter, tune up, and fix the throttle linkages, then hit er with the grease gun!!

Yeah! Success!

By the looks of the long terminal studs on the old alternator it probably originally had the isolation diode and heat sink.

Some BLEM probably though they were improving things when they removed it.

What is a BLEM? Maybe I are one and don't know it.

When tires and batteries are not quite up to spec they get a "BLEM" stamp.

Some tractor and equipment abusing folks should be stamped "BLEM" on the forehead!

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That's the euphoric feeling I'd get every time I got that 3010 fixed and going again. Trouble is,I was getting that feeling about once a week if you get what I mean. It got traded for an Oliver 1600 so my emotions could level off.

the puzzler was none of the manuals i had showed the external diode, all the wiring diagrams shows the original configuration. i spent a lot of time tracing wires, ohm metering (is that a word?) cleaning up terminal connectors and just could not figure out what was wrong. even after i got the replacement alternator, it took a while for the AHA moment.

Thank you.

Nice job, that previous condition of the wiring would drive me nuts.

Hi Glad You got there in the end, I have had similar messes here with everybody elses wiring projects. I think the worst was a case 1175. I pulled all the junk off, re wired most of it. added some extra things the guy wanted on it, and still used less wire/terminals and tape than I took off originally.

The guy couldn't believe the mess the last owner left for him. when he saw the rats nest that was on the floor when he came to get it. He asked what I had forgotten to put back on or fit from his extras list L.O.L.
Regards Robert

Ah finally that light at the end of the tunnel and looks so much better now just keep the owners out of the loom !!