Kegler 68 #1 Posted July 30, 2014 Picked up a 417a locally a few days ago and drove it home, Well kinda, it spit and sputtered all the way (3 blocks) Assumed it had old gass and might need carb work. While parts of the tractor are in fairly good shape all signs point to it being outside and not well cared for.Took me 2 days of soaking to get the front mule drive to adjust. Has around 2000 hr on the ticker. The hood, which was unbolted, and the frame etc are in fairly good shape while the seat pan had a rattle can job over very pitted rust. Most of that paint pealed off on the first washing. Hit the motor and some of the dirty parts with some degreaser and hosed it off. After which it would not turn over. . The lights on the dash are shot, most of the saftey switches seem to be bypassed. Printed out the wireing diagram and got ready to start tracing the problems when I got a big surprise. The battery had been instaled as a POSITIVE GROUND. I know that many years ago a lot of tractors were set up that way but don't know of any newer stuff. . My local dealer suggested that I drain tha battery all the way down and recharge it then hook it up the right way. What are your thoughts on this and what problems am I going to encounter? I do seem to remember that on the older stuff you had to re-polerize the voltage regulator the get the current flowing in the correct direction. but don't want to burn out an expensive part on this. Didn't pay a lot for it but the deck is in very good shape with no rust, (probably replaced) that I could probably get my money back out of but would rather get it running right to add to my other 2 horses. Will send pics, when I I get them ready. Thanks in advance, Keg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chazm 412 #2 Posted July 30, 2014 Yes please post pics of this POSITIVE GROUND set up , I would like to see how they got this rigged By connecting the battery cables up backwards it would have shorted out the battery & rectifier Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wheel-N-It 2,967 #3 Posted July 30, 2014 Yes, I'd like to see that too. The starter motor should spin backwards with reversed polarity. My 417A is negative ground. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tankman 3,515 #4 Posted July 31, 2014 Positive ground, how? Haven't seen a positive ground WH yet. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
