Farm Equipment - B starter smoking

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B starter smoking - Help!

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Category: Allis Chalmers
Forum Name: Farm Equipment
Forum Description: everything about Allis-Chalmers farm equipment
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=188822
Printed Date: 26 Aug 2025 at 4:53am
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Topic: B starter smoking - Help!

Posted By: JSHIVERS
Subject: B starter smoking - Help!
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2022 at 8:47pm

I had a dead battery and put a new one in today on my 1940 B. It has been converted to 12v. When I put the negative cable on, I got sparks and when I hit the starter button, I had smoke coming from the starter. The neg cable pretty much melted. Previously, everything worked fine. I removed the starter. Any thoughts on what's happening here?

Bad starter? Bad solenoid? Ground issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Replies:

Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 11 Jun 2022 at 8:50pm

smoke of sparks from the cable ends are bad connections... some INTERNAL to the starter is not good..

Use jumper cables on the bench and try to spin the starter to prove it is OK.... cable melting is VERY HIGH AMPS... see if the motor will turn over by hand or roll ... maybe the starter was STUCK on the flywheel ?

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Like them all, but love the "B"s.

Posted By: PaulB
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 6:48am

Putting 12 volts to a worn out 6 volt starter is just asking for trouble. A good starter should have no problem starting a B with 6 volts. Using a 12 volt battery on a 6 volt starter is also a good way to ruin a ring gear. If you want to keep your tractor at 12 volts, have your starter rebuilt properly as a 12 volt starter, it sound as your started needs to be rebuilt and now's the time to do it right.

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If it was fun to pull in LOW gear, I could have a John Deere.
Real pullers don't have speed limits.
If you can't make it GO... make it SHINY

Posted By: Steve in NJ
Date Posted: 12 Jun 2022 at 4:28pm

Not a good practice. Running 12 volts through 6V field coils makes the Starter motor violent which leads to cracked or broken nose cones, bent drives, and premature wear to the teeth on the ring gear. (flywheel) If the Tractor is converted to 12 volts, do the Starter the same way. Either you crisscrossed cables or as Steve mentioned maybe the Starter was stuck. How long ago was "previously".

We offer Starter motor rebuilding and conversions if interested....

Steve@B&B

bb-customcircuits.com

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39'RC, 43'WC, 48'B, 49'G, 50'WF, 65 Big 10, 67'B-110, 75'716H, 2-620's, & a Motorhead wife

Posted By: JSHIVERS
Date Posted: 04 Jul 2022 at 6:00pm

Just an update. Had the starter reworked. The real issue was in the starter switch on the

control panel. I cleaned it up and the sparking issues are resolved. I'm going to change to a set of keys for the ignition.