The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

First time I have used the tractor for work, spent half an hour with the new topper cutting the paddock. Worked just fine and very satisfying but when I stopped I found the battery did not have enough oomph to get the engine going. The battery charges fine on the battery charger, and holds charge, so I think the charging circuit is U/S. I noticed that the ammeter needle was waving too and fro during work, which I suspect shows that either the dynamo or the voltage regulator is not working. How do I check this out ?

There is a topic with Lucas technical info on how to check the whole line from dynamo till the adjustment of the voltage regulator.
I've just done the job. You need an amp and voltage meter.

http://www.fordsontractorpages.nl/phpbb ... ion#p25692

On the first post is a link to a info site.

Suggest also googleing "Lucas Fault Diagnosis Service Manual".
Pavel

porteous wrote:First time I have used the tractor for work, spent half an hour with the new topper cutting the paddock. Worked just fine and very satisfying but when I stopped I found the battery did not have enough oomph to get the engine going. The battery charges fine on the battery charger, and holds charge, so I think the charging circuit is U/S. I noticed that the ammeter needle was waving too and fro during work, which I suspect shows that either the dynamo or the voltage regulator is not working. How do I check this out ?

Hi
I dont know how big your battery is I have proper 1000cca tractor batterys on my majors and some don't charge but will start 5 or 6 times before i have to re charge the battery on the ones that start real good . you may have a charge fault as you say, The other common thing is that the starters get warm with use when working the tractor motor. Then they get a high resistance in them and won't start the tractor till it cools down again after a while standing or giving them a boost. so you could have a weak starter that may need servicing too, check all the main cables /terminals and solenoid for heat after trying to start it as you could have a bad contact somewhere to that plays up
Regards Robert

Many thanks guys. I can't open the link Henk, and the tractor has a new starter fitted just before I bought her. My suspicion is that the dynamo needs repair ( It should be torn down and cleaned out every six months according to the user's handbook! ).

Since I have no capacity whatever to deal with electric string in motor vehicles I will probably take the generator off and haul it down to the locak agricultural engineer. If that doesn't work then the control box would seem to be the next logical place to try.

I DO have a multimeter, but simply have no idea of where to stick the probes to measure power output (As opposed to wrecking the system)

Start the motor. Increase engine revs to about 7 or 800 and turn lights on [if you have them].
Set multimeter to DC volts - above 15volts.
Place probes across battery terminals - observing polarity.
Read-out should be above 13volts. 12v or below indicates lack of adequate charge reaching the battery.
As already suggested, regulator or dynamo could be the cause if low voltage - but bad wire connections, both live and earth, are a possibility.
I highly recommend the site 'Lucas Fault Diagnosis Service Manual' as you have a multimeter. It's a PDF format.
Pavel

Try this link
http://www.atcc.org.nz/tcc/LucasFault.pdf

90% change it's the regulator or a loos connection.

My dynamo has never been cleaned by me or the previous owner for at least 8 years.

You say "First time I have used the tractor for work" how long has it been sitting there doing no work or running..? generator may just need flashing again, did one on a E1A six months ago working fine now.