Cleaning and maintaining good ground paths, best methods???

[wilsonsk]

I just aquired my first tractor, a 1950 Farmall H. Runs great but the lights are not working, I'm cleaning everything up and finding they are fine, just dirty/rusty ground paths mostly. I'm cleaning parts with a wire wheel to get a good ground, is that the best thing to do? Is there something that will help conduct and keep the ground path clean? Whats the best way to maintain the lighting and electrical ground paths??

Thanks,

Steve
 

[John T]

I can only say whats worked for me over many years and manyyyyyyyyyyy tractors (was a used tractor dealer)

NOT ALWAYS MIND YOU LOL BUT HERES THE BEST IN MY OPINION........ After I cleaned/ground down/polished or whatever it took to get to a good shiny (no paint or grease or rust) conductive case/frame member. I used stainless steel bolts nuts and the biting barbed star lock washers and good soldered and crimped terminals with heat shrink etc wires and terminations, then when all is done if you keep oxygen and moisture away oxidation/rust is greatly reduced, so a thin coat of silicone or other coating, then let it dry then paint over.

If you do it that way I neverrrrrrrr had connection problems later. Similar on battery posts if you use the felt washers underneath then top it all off with that red terminal coating I NEVER HAD CONNECTIONS GO BAD

Thats my story n Ima stickin to it,,,,,,clean bright shiny steel,,,,,,,stainless steel star lock washers and other hardware,,,,,,,,,soldered and crimped terminals,,,,,,,,,,,coat all to keep air and water away YOURE GOOD TO GO

John T
 

[wilsonsk]

Thanks, I cleaned everything with the wire wheel on the grinder, bolted it all together and everything works great! I'll get it coated with something tonight. Now I need to go through the wiring, it has the 4 position L-H-D-B switch, and I'm assuming a cut out, it's big and square like a regulator, but appears to have 4 terminals, and one on the right side isn't used, just one wire going up to the box. It charges a little with the switch on H, but won't keep up with the lights, after running for a few minutes on H wide open, I get about 6.2 volts, ammeter shows a slight charge. I'm assuming it should be better than this.
 

[Bob M]

If the cutout/regulator has 4 terminals, it's a regulator. And from your description (low charge rate, generator can't keep the lights and an open terminal on the VR) says the VR is wired wrong.

The regulator's BAT terminal should connect to the ammeter. And the regulator L terminal should go to the tractor's electrical loads ("hot" supply for both the ignition and light switches).

Punch the link below for a diagram.
VR wiring diagram

 

[wilsonsk]

It's definitely a cutout, and has a field resistor for use if there are no lights. I think I've got things working fairly well, I started another thread just for my charging issue.
 

[wilsonsk]

http://ytforums.ytmag.com/viewtopic.php?t=965486
 

[buickanddeere]

There are times when just running a separate chassis return
cable is better than grinding through the paint. Or when there
are many bolted sheet metal joints.
 

[wilsonsk]

We'll see how it holds, it's working fairly well now (7.2 volts on "H"). The belt is very loos as well, I didn't see how to adjust it at first, pretty clever. I didn't realize how it worked until I had the hood back on. It has a loader on it so removing the hood is a bit of a chore.