Farmall A wiring - charging options

Electrical Guru"s,
I"ve done a lot of reading on various electrical setups people have done and I think I understand... Here"s what I"m planning to do. Please, someone let me know if I"m off base somewhere since I"m adding stuff and don"t have the advantage of seeing what was there originally.

Here"s my starting point. I have a 1946 Farmall A with magneto and 12V battery turning a 6V original starter. I"m told just don"t crank too long as it will heat up too much. Works for me. Spins fast and starts great. I have a battery conditioner that I use when parked to recharge the starter battery.

I"d like some lights for evening hay rides so last year I bought some 12V headlights and wired them into a couple 6V (series for 12V) golf cart batteries in the wagon that run an existing inverter for christmas tree lights on the wagon. Works good for 2-3 hours, no problem. Now I"d like to add a charging system to the tractor and I"d like to keep the original look. I found a 6V generator 1101355 cheap at a swap meet and have had some success rebuilding it. The four position original voltage regulator is shot so, I"m thinking I"ll replace it with a 12V voltage regulator and not mess with the field coils. How much risk is there, really.. with burning the field coils? I"m running lights on a 45 degree october evening, yet also pull a float in the 4th July parade which could be a 90 degree day (yet no load on the battery). Meanwhile, I acquired an old amp box that I sandblasted and repainted and replaced the ammeter. It has a 4 position switch with field resistor, headlight resistance coil and fuse. Can I use this switch as long as it"s not broken? I noticed my original manual has the generator field running up to the field resistor on the switch. But, I"m planning to use a VR, and not a cut out. Does the switch give some feedback to the generator field saying, "hey the lights are on, give me more juice." or "back off and produce less power (less heat) when the lights are off". Is that what the voltage regulator does automatically? Should I get the modern 3-position 12V switch? I don"t yet have a rear light, but am curious when that would come on. Red and white.

I forgot to mention the generator has a third brush and I"m planning to set it nearest the closest brush (two commutator bars away) for most current. Is this a bad idea since I"m pushing it by regulating up at 12V rather than 6V? I figure I could always send in the generator to have the field coils replaced for 12V if they went bad. Does the armature need to be rewound too? Gosh, maybe I should just get an alternator or take it back to 6V pos ground.

6 volt or 12 volt switch does not matter they are rated in amps not volts. As for the generator system it can be wired to put out 12 volts but just putting on a 12 volt V.R will not do it. But since you want to keep it looking like it did you could always rig up a PTO drive alternator system to power your lights so you would have a 6 volt system for the tractor and a extra 12 volt system for the lights that would be run off the PTO

I believe the best (of the originality look) options is to use 6 volt on the tractor. It will start fine on 6v with good 0 gauge cables. The benefit is well charged battery with your good gen. A 6v gen driven to 12 volts is just not going to do the hayride thing at all well.
Another way to retain original look is to go with a 12 volt generator from a later tractor, or a diesel.
They will put out enough to do the lights as long as desired. If it were mine it would have a 120 amp Delco 12SI alternator on it and that would be enough to have the hay rack perpetually lit!
Do not use the light switch for anything but lights, All gen wiring it to go to the VR!
The rear light (if it has a red light feature) will have a switch on it to choose red or white.
It is supplied from a separate terminal on the switch that is on full volts on D and B positions.
The switch will now have 2 OFF positions where L and H were located. Let us know if you need wiring diagrams (Bob M diagrams are the answer to that question. Jim

Your generator is the original but it never had a regulator it came with a cut-out you need to get the tractor charging system back to original then get a 12v battery for your lites on whatever you want to pu that way the tractor will be good to go and not have any charging problems. You can use whatever volts on the wagon and with its seperate battery you wont have any problems.ll