43' Farmall H weak start and battery gush'in

Here goes,

I have an H that has been converted over to a 12v system. Last year I replaced the alternator and all the wiring which was all ratted up and put on some heavy duty battery cables. I also put in a new battery as well. I store my tractor over the winter so I added a trickle charger to maintain the battery. This winter I went to start it and it turned over really slow and them gained momentum and started. The battery seemed ok so I was leaning toward a tired starter. But last weekend I noticed the trickle charger would not kick off and was constantly drawing to charge. I popped the battery caps and noticed the positive side was low on water. I figured I had found the culprit and it wasn"t my starter. I filled and charged. Next day I just wanted to see if it would turn over stronger. With the spark off I hit the starter button and water from the positive side of the battery came squirting out as the tractor turned over but it was a stronger turn over by the starter. Popped the caps off the pos(+) side again and water was low. I figure the battery is being overcharged. How do you stop the alternator from overcharging the battery on a 12v conversion or is there something else wrong here? Thanks in advance

You need to use a volt meter and check the charging voltage at the battery with the engine at 1/2 to 3/4 throttle. Should be around 14.5 volts. Your voltage regulator may be defective.
Hal

Several thoughts:

1 – A properly wired 12 volt alternator will NOT overcharge the battery. If it does it's either wired wrong or (long shot...) the alternator voltage regulator is bad. A quick test is stick a voltmeter across the battery terminals with the engine running at governed RPM. If the voltmeter reads between 13.5 and 14.5 volts the charging system is working fine.

2 – From the behavior of your battery (uses water, cranks slow, trickle charger runs continuously) it has reached the end of its life. Time for a new battery!

3 – Good chance leaving the trickle charger on the battery over the winter hastened its demise. Unless the charger is properly calibrated and temperature compensated (and the cheap ones are not) it will continually overcharge battery and slowly boil the life out of it. Better to simply let the battery sit over the winter and then once every 2 – 3 months put a charger on it overnite to top it back up.

Just a thought but I had a trickle charger on my boat and didn't realize it never shut off. It constantly charged and ruined a battery. It was made that way.

That is a dead cell in the battery. I have seen new factory batteries that were in the car from the factory with 3 miles on it with that condition.
Put your trickle charger on a timer for 1/2hr/day. JimN