Electronic ignition

[Tom jd50]

Bought a nice 60 . Drove it home and batteries were shot. Son put a 12 volt battery in. Tractor has not started since. Juice to coil but no fire. Is there a way to check to see if the electronic ignition is fried? I don"t know if the battery was hooked up wrong as I wasn"t there. But since then the tractor has not had any spark.This tractor was switched over to electronic ignition before I got it.

 

[John T]

I hope the elec switch didnt get connected at the wrong polarity when the battery was installed?? That tractor was originally Positive ground ya know and the switches have to be for the correct polarity. The switch should conduct coil current to ground (i.e. zero volts on coils low to dist terminal) and only open when its supposed to fire.

John T

 

[LJD]

Pertronix gives diagnostic info on their Website in PDF files.

Not your problem but . . one big difference betweene electronic and points systems. The electronic goes dead at 8.5 volts if the system gets low. with points - in a 12 volt system - voltage can get down to 5-6 volts and still work.

 

[Machinery-Man]

I"ve installed several of these. I know that you cannot jump start with the electronic. The battery needs to be charged before starting. I doubt that you have messed up anything but you need to check your installation and see whether the unit is positive or negative and you need to know what your son did. Check the input side of the coil and see what the polarity is. Then charge your batter be sure it"s hooded up according and go from there. You actually don"t have to turn engine over, you can just switch on switch off and check for spark.

 

[buickanddeere]

Odds are the polarity was reversed on the electronic unit and smoked the solid state parts.
Those Pertronix units can be ordered either - or + chassis. Unless the installer checks polarity. The electronics are in peril. Odds are your boy did what 99% of the population does. And connects - to chassis.

 

[Tom jd50]

Checked with the person that I figured switched this to electronic ignition and he said that he switched it to negative ground due to everything else being that way, so that pretty much explains it.Boy had it hooked up like all the old Deeres were to be hooked up-positive ground. Thanks for all the replies. Sure do learn a lot on here.