What's this smoking on my 706??

Voltage regulator? It's a '63 IH 706 w/ the 282.

Here's the symptoms and the back story: Started it using the glow plugs, after holding the button down for about 45sec the spring on the glow plug meter needle was actually glowing and smoke was coming from the back of it. Obviously stopped pushing the button and it stopped smoking and glowing - but the tractor stared fine. Then I noticed that there was light smoke coming from the back of the box in this pic and a faint burnt electrical smell. Hurried up w/ the chores and shut it back down - it was probably running for 15-20min and the smoke or smell never got any worse.

Back story: couple months ago I burned out all my glow plugs by using a 200amp charger to start it. Changed all the glow plugs and the battery and it's been good since. I'm thinking I mostly burned this out and it finally let go?

So what's my next step? Just replace the box or did I fry the glow plug meter as well as other stuff? Any other tips/advice?

Sounds like you have a short in the power feed to the glowplugs. I would check that first, and then change your voltage regulator if it to was smoking.

Check for poor connections on the back of the glow plug meter that could cause it to get hot.

If there has been any oil or fuel spilled or leaked that got behind the regulator the smoke would be normal. There is a wire wound resistor on the back that in normal use can get hot enough to smoke if there is any oil on it.

Thanks for the tips guys. I checked it tonight, all the connections on the back of the meter are tight and no obvious shorts in those wires. The seal under the steering wheel had been leaking, I just fixed that not too long ago so there very well could be some residual hydraulic fluid hanging around back there behind the regulator. I took the cover off the regulator and there wasn't anything obvious in there but there were traces of fluid around the edges but it looked like the gasket had kept it out of the internals.

There was however a faint burned hole in the main feed line going to the glow plugs that I must have missed in my initial look so hopefully that's the cause. Must have been shorting against one of the injector lines.

So next question - can I just replace the quick connect that's shorted or should I replace the whole wire? It went up and over the engine and I lost it there so I'm not sure where it goes. Does the power go anywhere after the meter before it gets to the plugs? Surprising it's not more of a straight shot. Not sure what caused the short though, could the regulator have been sending too much juice? Is there a way to test it?