Voltage reducing

[notjustair]

I finally had it - I went to town and bought an alternator for the 8n.

I took the advice of some folks and drove over to the guy that rebuilt the generator and bought a regulator from him. It was the exact same China junk I have been buying everywhere else. It worked for all of two minutes and then started messing up. I was over it. The alternator was three dollars more than the regulator I wasted money on earlier in the day. I have NO machinery that is 6 volt anymore.

Here is my question - how strong are those 12-6 volt reducers? The lights on this tractor are only a year old and I am hoping that I can put a reducer in front of the light switch and use my 6 volt lights. I have two front and one rear light.

I happened to have one laying around so that is what I am going to do for the coil. When it eventually dies I will go with a 12 volt coil. It would be really swell if one reducer would do everything, but as I recall you have to have one of those for every "appliance", right?
 

[souNdguy]

won't work,

voltage reduction via a resistor will be based on load.

your coil and your lamp assy are NOT the same load.

if you have a front mount and the oe coil.. you need the oe resistor and a proper converting resistor to drop primary current to a max of 4a.

if you are sidemount and oe coil.. then just the resistor.

me? i'd squander the 35$ and get 3 new lamps and a new coil if sidemount.. if front mount.. tat will be about 45$.

otherwise, if you can do without a tail lamp, you can open upt he 2 front lamp shells and wire the front lamps in series and run them that way.. when one pops you lose both as it breaks the circuit.

you've spent 'this much' so far. go ahead and finish it off and not have to worry about it.

the resistor and coil, vs new coil isn't the issue. the lamps are the issue.. you won't be happy trying to come up with a fixed resistance to run them correctly..
 

[Royse]

I agree with SoundGuy. If you're converting, in for a penny in for a pound.
Rather than cutting and splicing in resistors, I would just get the right components.
Every extra connection is another potential point of failure.
 

[NOXJohn]

I went through the same frustration and did the same thing and converted to 12 volts. Do as Soundguy suggests and do it right. Spend a few more dollars and you will not need to work on your electrical system for a long time. I went so far as to gut the old 6 volt coil and to convert my front mount 1949 8N to using a real 12 volt oil filled no resister needed round coil. The total cost was less then $200 and it works great. Now if anything fails I can buy replacement parts right off the shelf at the local auto parts store. A good charging 6 volt system worked great for 60+ years but decent parts are now hard to find. I don't want the frustration of wasting my money buying junk just to keep my tractor looking original. All of mine are working tractors. They will not work with a dead battery.
 

[JMOR]

[Mr. T. Minnesota]

JMOR,
I enjoyed your (rant for the average Joe) and you explained it right.
Happy New Year!
Mr. T. Minnesota
 

[Ken(Ark)]