Juice no juice

[ROY Boy]

This is a rerun of earlier on of what i think is a "short problem" but dont know where.
Details
1949 8n front mount 6volts
useing a test light to find juice
I first thought my tool box got against some wires and shorted a wire out as the wire from the bottom post on the resister to the ammmeter burnt.
I have no starter or generator on the tractor as its being rebuilt. I have a regulator, resister, and new wiring harness ordered.
this is what i have to date
I jumpered a wire from the battery to the wire from the solenoid to the ammeter and at the ammeter i bypassed the ammeter to the bottom post on the resistor.
The bottom resistor post is hot and one side of the ignition is hot.
I turn on the key and the bottom post on the resistor is dead as is the hot side of the key, but the wires going to the bottom post on the resistor began to smoke and melt. Yesterday the resistor would smoke when i turned on the key.
I have also tryed jumpering across the ignition and also a new ignition.
Do you think my short is in the resistor?
Roy

 

[Peter, Covington, LA]

This may be simple. I hope so.

I think the reason your test light shows no voltage at the bottom of the resistor when the juice is on, is that there is a dead short down-line from there. It could be in the coil, or it could be the wire going to the coil. The easy way to determine that is to take the wire loose from the coil and see if it still does the smoke trick. My best guess is the wire is chafed somewhere in the tube, or possibly its insulation melted. Running a new wire, even temporarily, will tell you whether that solves the problem.