6 volt

Thanks for all the replies, I'm going to leave the tractor lights on tonight to run the battery down, after it meters under .01volt I'll put it on the charger correctly and see if I can get it back, The guy I was talking about in the post the other day said that was the way Ford cars used to be and they would get dry cell batteries and charge them up back wards for the negitive GND on the Ford cars, after all yer post I'm confident he is wrong, at least about my Farmall 300.

Joe,

Just read your previous post...can't believe that anybody would be dumb enough to think you should charge a battery backwards. At best, doing so will destroy the battery.

Old Fords (and a lot of other vehicles and farm equipment) did use a positive ground system, which means the positive post of the battery was connected to the chassis rather than the negative like most modern cars.

However, the way the battery is connected has absolutely nothing to do with the way the battery works internally...always, always, always charge a battery with the (+) terminal of the charger connected to the (+) terminal of the battery, regardless of which terminal is connected to the chassis.

Good luck with trying to recover the battery; it's worth a try, but even if you get it to take a charge in the correct polarity it probably won't last too much longer.

Keith

Forgot to add, you may need to re-polarize the generator in order to get it to charge correctly once the battery is properly charged and connected.

Keith

I went back and re-read your original post and I STILL don't understand what you're talking about.
Does the battery meter backwards now? You put the black from the meter on the - post and red on the + post and the meter reads negative volts?

I'm thinking your chances of coming out of this with a good battery are pretty small...

That guy you talked with clearly has NO CLUE how batteries work.

Loads of batteries get connected backwards (IE negative ground) in these old Farmalls, I did it back when I didn't know any better. Other than usually killing the voltage regulator it doesn't really do the battery any harm at first. The problem is you run the battery down since the regulator/generator can't charge it backwards so if you don't realize whats going on you ruin the battery pretty quick.

Anyway I like to slap some red paint on the ground cable on my old Farmall ('52 Super M) as a visual reminder as to which cable goes where...

yes I think it does, when I turn on the lights the meter goes all the way to the right instead of the left, this is what clued me in that this was a big mistake. How do I tell is I have damaged the voltage regulator?

joe

thank you

A picture would sure help here, all the analog meters I've ever used are single swing to the right.

*SLAPS HEAD* oh wait, you're talking about the ammeter on the tractor! STOP EVERYTHING, hold the presses.
Step 1. Acquire a multimeter, one that reads VOLTAGE. The ammeter on the tractor reads amperage. If the tractor isn't running and the lights are on it should swing to the left, thats normal. If the engine is running you should see it at 0 or to the right, if its swinging left you're in discharge.
Being in discharge just tells you that the battery isn't charging, it doesn't tell you why.

Get a multimeter, put it on the battery, red wire on the multimeter to the + terminal on the battery, black wire on the multimeter to the - terminal on the battery. Should show you 6+ volts. If it tries to swing the other way (or if its a digital multimeter and wants to read -v) then try the connections the other way round.

I think its HIGHLY unlikely you've completely reversed the polarity of the battery, sometimes a cell will reverse, if that'd happened your multimeter would read ~4v. If thats true try charging the battery overnight but it probably won't help and you'll probably need a new battery.

So lets assume things are good and you've got 6+v when looking at a multimeter hooked up correctly. If you've got the tractor running and the ammeter still says you're in discharge it'll probably be doing it all the time, when you put the lights on the motion just gets bigger... If thats true you've probably (but not definitely) got a bad regulator, they're sort of spendy but not too bad and a relatively easy thing to check.

With negative ground the generator will still charge the battery. The 6 volt regulator may wear out sooner because of different contact materials, so I have read. I accidentally made mine negative ground, it charges fine, just have to remember when the ammeter reads backwards. THe battery and generator don't care about the ground, as long as the generator is polarized, the regulator whimpers a little bit.

The regulator on my '52 Super M didn't whimper, it just quit. The ammeter read to the left but because it was discharging...

Of course I don't know how long mine had been setup backwards. Great Uncle put it on like that "We always did it that way!" Well with a new regulator and battery and the new battery put in the right way around it charges just fine.

My C is waiting for an engine kit, will have positive ground when done. I believe the regulator is actually IH, bought tractor 10 years ago (hasn't been neg ground quite that long). The original regulators will take more punishment.

...just have to remember when the ammeter reads backwards...

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or flip the wires around on the back of the gauge. I ran my SMTA with the gauge reading backwards for a couple years and then it finally got me one day. Not it reads properly, hooray.

I have found that batteries that were run completely flat never work as well after that.

When a battery fully discharges, the lead sulphate tends to precipitate out, and when the bottom of the cells fill to the point that the plates touch the precipitate, it shorts the cell out, and the battery is done.

Anybody heard of putting a teaspoon of epsom salts in each cell and then recharging? Supposedly it will clean the plates and bring them back to life sometimes.