wiring

wiring a IH 450 fowled the wiring diagram. turned key on started smoking wires stated to melt. went back fowled all the wires all checked out any advice. thanks

Points are stuck on the voltage regulator.

Does it have an alternator? if so the battery needs to be attached negative ground, and the amp meter reversed the coil should be Negative small terminal to the distributor. Make sure all wires that were hot are not now shorted to ground or each other. If it is a generator, Duner may be correct. Look at the things the smoked wires attached to to discover the fault. Jim

It seems to me our resident instructor went through that a bit hurried. Lets make it a little clearer.. for an alternator the battery needs to be attached negative ground, and if the amp meter reads the opposite that it should meaning discharge instead of charge requires swapping all wires from the terminal they are currently on to the opposite one, or side to side if that is clearer; the coil should be Negative small terminal to the distributor. Hopefully that clarifies it. If you had a generator and rewired to keep the generator then a report on which wires shorted and melted would be helpful. You are looking for ..advice.. I would strongly suggest that you avoid any urges to repair the wiring on a newer computerized vehicle. ; > ) Hopefully you are alright with a little light hearted poking.

''turned key on started smoking wires stated to melt''

Some of you guys need to READ what the O.P. posted, if we take him at his word, nothing seemed to be shorted when he connected the battery , but the when the ignition was switched ''ON'' the problem reared it's ugly head!

That would rule out the root cause being the alternator, or Ammeter which would have had power BEFORE the ignition was switched ''ON''.

Having the correct coil polarity helps with consistent ignition under load but the lack thereof isn't going to let the smoke out of anything.

wore out,
Remember, I'm not a professional.
When I wired my Farmall and Jubilee, I installed
fuses in each circuit, lights, alternator,
ignition and fuel solenoid. A 30 amp circuit
breaker because I ran 10g wire to the Alternator.
Using fuses makes it very easy to figure out
where a short is and my wires don't go up in
smoke.

Wore out is correct.... It's an issue in the key switch......

That's a pretty simple system, I would guess you unintentionally grounded the ignition circuit somewhere.

Mornin Alan, when you state: turned key on started smoking wires stated to melt

If what I think it to be ??? and it smokes when key turned on,,,,,,and the switch itself isnt somehow bad/shorted,,,,,,,,and IF turning the key on sends power to the ignition coil ?? I cant know from here

THERE MUST BE A SHORT or reverse polarity somewhere AFTER the switches output (IGN
terminal maybe??) down to the coil. I dont envision the key switch itself as the problem, rather in wiring downstream and after the switch to the coil or wherever else??

You might remove wires that come out of the switch one at a time to find the short or check resistances of the output circuits (such as to coil) to look for a short??

If there armed with a meter and test lamp this wouldn't be hard, but it is hard to diagnose over the net, sorry.....

John T

I was a bit in a hurry. Jim

Wore out, you are correct. I was more focused on
clarifying what Jim said. To the OP do you have any
wires connected to the starter side terminal of the
solenoid that has the strap on it feeding the starter? If
so those connections are incorrect. You may possibly
be trying to energize the starter through to small of
wiring that connects to the ignition. However other
connections in your ignition circuit would have to be
wrong as well for this to happen. I am envisioning that
you possibly have a 3 terminal solenoid and by
following a diagram you mistook the 4th wire on the
solenoid to be placed on the large terminal for the
starter. The if you incorrectly placed the other end of
that wire for the starting step up circuit on the ignition
switch side of the resistor you would have the result
you explained. If you have a 3 terminal solenoid it is
incorrect. You need a 4 terminal solenoid with 2 large
terminals and 2 small terminals. There small terminal
labeled ..S.. will be fed from the starter button. The
other small terminal labeled ..I.. would connect to the
step-up circuit for starting. This wire would connect to
the resistor block on the coil side.
I do not have access to a 450 wiring diagram but I
cannot even think of a place in the wiring that would
require a ground connection other than the base of the
regulator. Maybe possibly the head lights.

Thanks for all the ideas,I will go though them step by step thanks again