The auction M part 6 Good, Bad, Ugly

[1939farmall]

We had a little time this afternoon to continue going over the M.
THE GOOD
Tractor starts up easy. No unwanted bangs or knocks, sounds pretty good. Im just not a fan of straight pipes! Hydraulics lift, hold, and lower as they should.

Generator Works! My cheap volt ohmmeter show its putting out 13 to 14 volts. We have working headlights!

PTO functions as it should ( not under load yet). No water in any oil compartments. Water is circulating in the radiator. Tractor goes into and out of gear easily. I didnt drive it much just enough to go into each gear and listen. No noises coming from the gears.
THE BAD
We still have to sort out our batter cables to the starter. We have no working gauges. I wanted to make sure we had oil pressure so I cracked to line to the oil gauge and sprayed oil all over everything! I know, dumb move! I asked son why he didnt stop me, he said I thought you knew what you were doing! It does have a bit of a lope at low idle but Im not going to worry about it until the tractor gets some work under its belt, it may just need to be run. The brakes still need some attention, but at least the both do function at this point. So nothing horrible, just some things that still need attention.
THE UGLY

Some time in this old girls life she had a real bad day. A heck of a lot of weld work on the bottom of the rear end. But it appears to be a good job. No leaks no rear end noise. And who knows how long ago the repair was made.
Thanks for checking it out with us! To be continued

 

[Rich'sToys]

Looks like you're making good progress. Keep the updates coming!

 

[super99]

A lot of them like that, There wasn't enough room under the bull gears when a bearing came apart and a ball got under the gear, punching a hole it the case.

 

[1939farmall]

I thought that might be the reason. Or it had water in it that froze. Either way I hope it means the rear end has been gone through so I wont have to!

 

[rustred]

you must have a 12 volt generator on it if your getting 13-14 volts i can see it is a genertor not alternator. and by looking at the lights it has the big 12 volt ones.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Don't feel bad about the oil bath!

I'd rather have to clean up a little oil than run it without oil pressure!

 

[rustred]

when the brg. went, the bull gear was riding on the bottom of housing like a big grinder just eating away.

 

[1939farmall]

Thats what I was thinking too! Good thing I just bought a bag of oil dry to put on the floor!

 

[1939farmall]

I was wondering about that. So what would happen if I hook up a 12 volt battery? I have a fuse wired into the generator wire at the battery and I have the 15amp fuse in the box for the light so if the 12 battery is too much it should blow the fuse without damaging anything right?

 

[rustred]

What do u mean by hook up a 12 bolt battery ? Does this tractor have magneto or distributor ?

 

[1939farmall]

It has a magneto. Right now Im just jumping to the starter to get the tractor running since I still need some new battery cables. I had assumed since it still had the magneto it was a 6 volt system. But it appears that is not the case if the generator is putting out 13 to 14 volt and the lights work then I would think I could install a 12 volt battery instead of a 6 volt when I get the new cables. Does that sound right? I hope that makes sense.

 

[used red MN]

If you were checking voltage on the system with a cheapo digital meter with no battery connected in the tractor you have no idea what the voltage is. The noise in the generator and voltage regulator wreak havoc on those meters. If it was a cheap analog ..needle type.. then there is a possibility that you are getting a ball park reading. Pull one of the headlights out and read the voltage on the bulb. If it says 6v and you put a 12 volt battery in it they will go poof.

 

[farmallboy15]

Or a chunk of water froze in the case and when you start driving, the bullgear will crack the case.

 

[1939farmall]

I was using a little digital meter but I do have a pretty good quality analog meter I can check with. Ill check the bulb next time were In the shop. Thanks you.

 

[rustred]

first thing of all , these tractors came from factory with 6 volt positive ground. you are not telling me what battery you are using to start it, 6 or 12 volt? you say generator is putting out 13-14 volts? are you sure you are reading your voltmeter correctly? cause when i look at the generator it sure looks like the 6 volt generator. post a pic of that generator. the magneto needs no battery to run. people do a lot of funny things to these tractors so i still dont know what it has . i do know what the 6 volt generator looks like with the adjustable pully. 12 volt generator has no adjustable pully. talking factory stuff here.
the other thing is to get generator numbers.

 

[504]

You could just take a headlight out and see if it is 12v or 6v. The numbers should be on the back

 

[1939farmall]

Im using a 12 volt battery to start the tractor. Im using the ground cable from the tractor to battery then using a jumper from the other battery post to the starter post. I do not have the battery wired into the generator wiring. I didnt want to put a battery in the tractor until I knew what type of generator I had, and I know I need new battery cables. I dont see any numbers on the generator. Im setting up my meter at the battery end of the generator wire. One lead to ground the other to the wire. My reading fluctuates between 13 and 14 volts. Here are pics of the generator. Thank you.

 

[1939farmall]

The bulb is a Westinghouse H238 all that is on the back is USA B18. Google isnt telling me much. Couldnt I start the tractor and put my meter on the leads to light and see what the voltage is?

 

[1939farmall]

I put a couple pictures of the headlights up above in the thread. Ill add them here too. They are Westinghouse H238 the back say USA B18 if that helps. Couldnt i start the tractor and read the voltage at the headlight? So far google isnt telling me if its a 6 or 12 volt light

 

[rustred]

this is the old original 6 volt generator. there is no 12 volt generators that look like that. the 12 volt on the diesels dont have the adjustable pulley. plus the 12 volt has a different armature with a smaller nut for the pully. put a 6 volt battery in the tractor then check voltage at battery once its running. as for the light they look like 12 volt lights plus if they were 6 volt lights they would be burnt out with that 12 volt battery.as i said that is positive ground with 6 volt.

 

[1939farmall]

Ok. Thank you for the information. Now that I know what I have we can move forward. Some one mentioned I would not get an accurate reading with out a battery in the circuit. Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

 

[used red MN]

Yes, you could check it with your analog meter.