postive gound

Anonymous-0 · Jul 11, 2008

I HAVE A 1941 FARMALL H AND WHEN I GOT THE TRACTOR THE BATT WAS HOOKED UP NEG GRN IS THIS WRONG AND SHOULD I REHOOK IT UP SO POS GRN, IT RUNS BUT STARTS HARD AND TRYING TO GET IT TO START EASYER. IS THIS THE A PROBLEM OR IT DONT MATTER MUCH.
THANK FOR YOU HELP

Bob M · Jul 11, 2008

Jon -

Your H was shipped new positive grounded. However as long as it's not been retrofitted with electronic ignition or an alternator, it'll run fine negative grounded.

Ground polarity has no effect on starting - changing back to positive ground will not help your hard starting problem. Rather it's caused by corroded or undersized battery cables, a worn-out starter, a weak/undercharged battery, etc.

mkirsch · Jul 11, 2008

For starting and running, it doesn't matter one bit as long as the battery is charged.

rvirgil_KS · Jul 11, 2008

Hard starting problem...When it was changed from positive to negative ground the coil wires (distributor ignition) may not have been switched.
With positive ground, positive coil wire goes to distributor. With negative ground negative coil wire goes to distributor.
I"ve seen reverse wired coil cause hard starting.
Bob

Clarkbug · Jul 11, 2008

I recently purchased two H's that were off the same farm.

One has a mag, and is positive ground. The other one has a distributor (no electronic ignition, still breaker points) and its hooked up negative ground. However, the ammeter goes in the negative direction when it runs the whole time.

Can I just swap the cables back to positive ground? Or how can I tell if some other switch has been made and its just the ammeter that wasnt re-wired?

Clarkbug · Jul 13, 2008

And one of the more important questions I have, is that would that reversal affect at all how things run?

The tractor fires right up, but runs kinda rough. New points, rotor, cap, wires, plugs, and still stumbles a little. Im thinking its because when I took off the points cover it had oil there (time to replace o-ring on the end of the distributor) but would a swap of ground do anything?

SRH · Jul 17, 2008

If you have a 6 volt system make sure your cables are 2 gauge it should fire up right away

Clarkbug · Jul 19, 2008

Thanks for the reply SRH.

Actually its not the starting of the tractor thats the problem. It fires right up before the engine even finishes turning over once.

Its once its running that things seem strange. It doesnt idle smoothly, almost sounds like it stumbles a bit. I notice that the ammeter is running backwards, and its hooked up with a negative ground not positive. I didnt think that a swap like that would hurt it, but I wasnt sure...

Anyone have any ideas?

postive gound

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