ford 860 cranking amps

[64drivers]

I had a 1955 860 that has been converted to 12v. I just replaced the battery and now get absolutely nothing when I attempt to start. No clicks, nothing. I have checked the wiring and the ground and it all checks out. The only thing I can think of is maybe I purchased too small of a battery. This one has 360cca. What is the spec cranking amps for a 860?
 

[JMOR]

[souNdguy]

360 cca is lekly fine on a 6v starter.. you are dealing with double the voltage.. that makes alotta wattage.

dito what jmor said.

recheck connections.. adn make sure bat is charged.

whats volt meter across bat say when you try to start? it drop to 2v? or 0v?
 

[64drivers]

I don"t have a voltmeter here, but am planning to bring one this weekend to check. All I have is a test light. Just put on new solenoid. Tractor will jump fine with barely a turn on the starter.
 

[souNdguy]

new solenoid? always more to the story the OP never tells us :(

did you by chance use a car solenoid and not a tractor solenoid?

tractor solenoid wants ground from the tranny thumb switch.

car solenoids like power on their coil wire.

i'm guessing you bought the wrong part..
 

[64drivers]

Bought it from yesterdays tractor part store and is exact same model as one I took off.Just swapped the solenoid this morning with no effect on original problem.
 

[souNdguy]

if you can jump across it and it works, check it to make sure that it is pulling in when you ground the small tab
 

[old]

360CCA is a tad bit small but shoot I have used lawn mower batteries to start tractors before and they worked just fine. Before doing the parts throwing at it take that battery and either try it in something else or take it back and have it checked. I have more then once came home with a new battery that was worse then the one I used as a core. Now days it is getting pretty common to get new parts that are not worth any thing
 

[Brad_bb]

A voltmeter is an essential tool any car or tractor guy should have. It helps you solve a myriad of problems. I just chased an ignition problem on my tractor and without it, would have never found the problem. You should have one at the very least for measuring battery voltage.

You can test your starter (to eliminate that as the problem) by connecting a known battery like from your car or truck with jumper cables to the starter (One to the starter post, and one to chassis ground). If it turns, that eliminates the starter. You can eliminate your new battery as the problem by connecting your car battery to the posts/battery cables using your jumper cables. connect the car battery in parallel. You know the car battery is good so if nothing happens again, you know it's not the battery. It's somewhere in between, possibly the solenoid.