New to the farmall cub life

[craigamy]

Hello. New to the forum. Have had a 1949 cub with bucket for about a year. Has been running great. Then after heavy rain will no longer even turnover. I replaced wire harness due to several areas of bare wire. Not sure where to go from here. Bit of a newbie so bear with me. Thanks

[Ky Cub]

Sounds like it might just be a bad battery.

[NJ Farmer]

Connections….electrical connections must be clean and corrosion free. I like to clean all my connections wire brush and the coat (rub over) with a dielectric grease like Dow Corning DC-4 or something equivalent to electrical grease.

A continuity testor is your best friend to find out your electrical problems. The wiring diagram is pretty simple just go through the system step by step.

[Gary Dotson]

I would first suspect battery and battery cables. A 6 volt system requires an excellent current path. Welcome to the forum!

[inairam]

in addition to the cables I sometimes have an issue with the pull lever switch on the older cubs If the cables are ok and If it will not kick at all I would try moving the lever, push or pull the top of the lever so the bottom is on a different spot on the button, and see if it kicks.

If it does consider a new switch

http://www.tmtractor.com/new/el/2543fp.htm

[Crimson Tim]

As you are checking and rechecking the wiring and connections, pay special attention to grounds. Where does your battery ground to? It was originally to the flimsy sheet metal battery box. The connection from the battery box to the floor pan gets notoriously cruddy, and even the connection from the floor pan to the big castings can get degraded.

A lot of us move the ground cable attachment to a bolt on the transmission housing to bypass those unreliable trouble spots.

Beyond that, You can do a voltage drop test to pinpoint exactly what connection is causing you trouble.
You can also use a pair of jumper cables to get yourself started in a pinch. Just jump the starter directly off the battery (making sure you’re paying attention to polarity: 6v is almost always positive ground, 12v negative ground).
Even if you have a connection that doesn’t want to pass enough current to turn the starter, it will probably pass enough to keep it running once started.
If these tricks don’t work, you have more troubleshooting to do.

Edit: also, if you just replaced the wiring, are the battery cables the right size? Battery cables for 6v have to be a lot bigger than battery cables for 12v.