First Cub

[mortten]

102 should have a 3 position switch. Off, on, and spring loaded start. It also uses a toothed key instead of an Indak style key.

[RustyShackleford]

Well I feel sort of silly... there is a third key position, which starts the tractor right up . I took that odd jumper wire off (which ran from the positive coil terminal to the safety switch terminal on the solenoid) and now the ignition circuit operates as normal.

Only problem is, I’ve realized that the charging system is not working. The battery voltage does not increase when the tractor is running versus when it’s stopped. I took the S/G off of the tractor and did the field test where you spin it up with 12 volts, and then put +12v to the F terminal while it’s still spinning. It had no effect. I then opened up the S/G and found that the wire that connects to the backside of the F terminal is totally busted off. No wonder it didn’t work... Is there a way to reattach this wire? Perhaps it was soldered at the factory?

I’ve attached a couple photos, one of the S/G as it was connected before I took it all apart (and the wiring doesn’t seem right to me either, based on the diagram I’ve seen in the service manual), and one of the broken wiring connection. Sorry about the rotated pictures... not sure how to fix that

What do you guys think? Is this fixable?

[R Bedell]

What do you guys think? Is this fixable?

If this was me, I would. But then again, I have to tools to do so. You may need a small torch to get enough heat to overcome the "mass" to get the solder to melt.

[ol'George]

If you remove the terminal, it would be less "mass" to heat up and using a
LARGE soldering gun or better yet, a soldering copper.
Or heating up the terminal with a propane torch and applying solder after the end is bright and clean, should get you some joy as Roland mentioned.
Remember to flow the solder, "globbing up" don't get it done.
Luck!

[ironman]

By all means, remove the terminal. It passes thru the case inside a plastic/nylon insulator.
Melt that and you will have more troubles than a broken wire.
Your brushes are pretty much crap too.

[Cubcadet_107]

Originally Posted by ironman

Your brushes are pretty much crap too.

That was my first thought when I looked at that pic

Couldn't have said it better!

[RustyShackleford]

Originally Posted by R Bedell

If this was me, I would. But then again, I have to tools to do so. You may need a small torch to get enough heat to overcome the "mass" to get the solder to melt.

My sister does have a small kitchen torch, I'll have to ask to borrow it.

Originally Posted by ol'George

If you remove the terminal, it would be less "mass" to heat up and using a
LARGE soldering gun or better yet, a soldering copper.
Or heating up the terminal with a propane torch and applying solder after the end is bright and clean, should get you some joy as Roland mentioned.
Remember to flow the solder, "globbing up" don't get it done.
Luck!

I have a 140W soldering gun but I'm not sure it would be quite large enough. Torch might be the better option. Is there a certain kind of solder I should be using for something like this? All my soldering experience is smaller stuff (electronics and radio equipment).

Originally Posted by ironman

By all means, remove the terminal. It passes thru the case inside a plastic/nylon insulator.
Melt that and you will have more troubles than a broken wire.
Your brushes are pretty much crap too.

That nylon insulator is hanging by a thread as it is, sadly, so I will be careful there.

As far as the brushes go, they are definitely toast

[Cubcadet_107]

If I had to guess, those could be the brushes that tractor came with when new!

No problem though, they sell repair kits with new brushes. They come with new bearings too so you can replace the bearing(s, depending on the end cap yours has).

Edit: looking at your pictures above I can see that you have the type with 2 bearings, some only have 1 bearing at the front and a bushing at the back.

You remind me that I really need to check the brushes on my 106, it's been working like a charm since before I bought it but who knows how worn they could be...

[RustyShackleford]

So, after doing some more thinking, I believe that the incorrect S/G wiring (shown in my picture of the exterior of the S/G) resulted in the burning up of the field coil connection to the stud terminal. I have no idea why someone would connect it that way. From what I can tell, there's no reason that more than one wire should ever be connected to the field terminal.

In any case, I ordered a couple of replacement stud terminals through ebay, along with replacement brushes and new bearings. I'm hoping to be able to re-solder the broken field wire to the new stud terminal using a small torch and some rosin core solder. If I fail, though, I found a local mom-and-pop alternator/starter/etc. rebuilding shop that does a lot of ag rebuilds.

Under no circumstances do I want to replace this S/G with a cheapo rebuilt Chinese boat anchor, so one way or another this S/G will be back in action shortly

[ironman]

It would be good to have your armature commutators machined and field coils tested.
Maybe you can take your s/g and kit to mom & pop and they will give you a break on rebiulding it.
They will certainly be able to re-attach the wire to the terminal.