Ford NAA/Jubilee Starter Switch problems

[kylnor]

My father has a 1953 Ford Model NAA/Jubilee Tractor that has a starter switch issue.

My grandfather borrowed the tractor a long time ago and that's when the problem occured. Being a do it yourselfer he was able to still start the tractor by removing the wire from the starter switch on the transmission housing and temporarily touch it off to one side of the starter solenoid (-ve side I think). He operated the tractor like this until we recently took it back and are now trying to figure out why the tractor won't start when that same wire is hooked back up to the starter switch.

The tractor still has the orginal 6V Positively grounded system and runs fine once you get it started (without the starter switch in the loop). This to me seems to suggest that everything in the electrical system is fine except for the starter switch itself. We've disassembled and removed the starter switch from the the transmission housing and tested it with a voltmeter and it seems to work just fine however we still have no joy once everything is all assembled.

I've reviewed some posted wiring schematics for the NAA electrical system and they look straight forward but I still must be missing something.

Can someone offer any advice as to what I might be missing or explanation on how that whole electrical system with the starter switch is supposed to work.

Thx.

Kyle Norris
Canada

 

[Dell (WA)]

Kyle.......the NAA Jubilee originally had a 3-terminal starter solenoid mounted on steering column sheetmetal. The little middle terminal is electrically "HOT" and is GROUNDED (activated) by the BIG thumb switch on the tranny shifter.

Iff'n it don't work as described, then most likely yer grandaddy swapped the BIG terminal cables. And he found that work-around with the solenoid activation wire (little middle terminal) thru the starter motor brushes.

CAUTION: sometimes the "parts wizards" would sell a 4-terminal starter solenoid inplace of the 3-terminal safety solenoid. I know of 3-differend 4-terminal starter solenoids and only 1-works.

FYI.......neither the starter solenoid nor the starter motor care positive or negative ground ...or... original 6V-or-12V upgrade. .......HTH, Dell yer self-appointed sparkie-meister

 

[souNdguy]

sounds like the solenoid may have been changed, and or the switch is also bad.

taking the wire off the thumb switch and touching it to the trans top should make it work..

make sur eyou have the correct 3 terminal solenoid that needs ground on the lil terminal to make it turn over.. and fon't get run'd over doing so.

soundguy

 

[kylnor]

I've now taken a closer look and the starter solenoid appears to be a 3 terminal device but its mounted on the other side of the battery case and not under the steering column. Only one side of it seems to be bolted on and there's alot of paint under the mounting bracket that's attached to the solenoid housing......could there be a grounding issues there? When I make the bypass with the Starter button wire and attach it directly to the one side of the solenoid itself the soleniod itself makes alot of clicking sounds when the tractor is turning over.......is this normal?

Just looking at the cable lengths I don't think that the big terminal cables could have been switched but take a looks at the attached pics and let me know what you think? I've also tried taking the wire off the Starter bottom on the tranny casing and tried touching it to another part of the frame but still no joy. The starter button itself looks in bad shape too.

I've attached some pics to give you an idea of how things looks.

If anyone has anymore thoughts or ideas that I could try please let me know.

Kyle Norris
Canada