Farmall Tractor Light Upgrade How-To Episode - Let's Make Them Work Better!

Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @squatch253

[@vinnyhern]

👎👎 pointless, use a weatherproof plug if your really that worried about corrosion over time!

[@philipmackin1025]

Don't know if I would put a 2000's era plug on this tractor

[@peterbishop1933]

Yes it is not a dedicated ground at all only partial

[@terrycannon570]

Your question is pointless. This is a vintage tractor. Some of us belong to the keep it as OEM as possible Church. If you have followed Squatch253 you have seen that he even tries to use OEM fasteners on his restorations. Myself I can really appreciate this because my hobby is restoring Vintage and antique Machine tools Lathes/Mills etc.) I am restoring a vintage lathe that needed a new 3 phase motor. Rather than buy a new motor I had the OEM motor rewound. I am currently restoring an antique Camel Back drill press. The machine was originally driven by a line shaft probably steam powered but was converted to a 120-year-old reduction/repulsion motor. I will rework the motor to as new condition rather than put a late model motor on it. The bolts have square nuts. 1 is missing. I have located one and will replace it So Vinny Hern what is your point?

[@spacemanmat]

Not sure about anyone else but going from a non working ground to a working ground that won’t corrode is not pointless.

[@gregoryschmitz2131]

Sour grapes in tone. Its a nice mod and the usual high quality Squatch approach. I wish there was a thumbs down. What I would do vs Squatch may not be the same but he is the guy at the pointy end of the tractor, you respect the guy doing the work when its the class of work Squatch does.

[@johnblecker4206]

Very neat ground wire installation.

[@KC2DZB]

Nice modification Squach! I wanted to offer a soldering tip I picked up from a grey-beard. Tin both wires/components to be joined, leaving a little excess. Then hold them in place, and put the iron right on top until the solder flows. Pull the iron away and continue holding the wire until the solder solidifies. You can blow on it to speed things up if your fingers get too hot 😮. Works great for these joints and joining wires also, and eliminates the need for funky fixturing to get everything in alignment.

[@josephperkins4163]

Very nice, will save trouble down the road! Be there done that!

[@cometcountry1974]

What a nice, clean way to add a ground wire! Top notch!

[@martingardener90]

When resoring the headlamps on my Allis D272 I couldn't get replacements for the original bulbs but found it relatively easy to make H7 bulbs fit. When the lights were turned on it soon became obvious that the heat from these was going to burn the paint off the shells, so I ended up wired them in series, still far brighter than the originals I suspect.

[@GrandsonofKong]

Agree 100%..chased so many "flickering"/ non-working lights on trailers because of corroded grounds. One suggestion is coating the base of your light bulb with thin coat of silicon grease to help prevent possible future corrosion on the bulb itself.

[@born2worship519]

Thank you for this video Toby. I fully understand the "correct" police will be after you, but this is the joy of doing what you want to your own machine. This technology of the day was interesting then upgraded in the Super series, then again after that. Having worked with OEM Tractor Parts in their infancy, we spent a lot of time on lights, the original blue prints, functionality, can we make them work better for the "correct" crowd without changing outward appearance, etc. Those were great days. Great job on this video once again.

[@gregoryschmitz2131]

Very nice. On suggestion would be to orient the positive inside spade more 90 deg to the ground. Call it my fold lock syndrome, it should not move but if in the extremely remote possibility it would have a path to the ground and short ( make sure that insulation sleeve is pushed up to the spade.) I did shudder at the thump of the light to the bench but in reality far worse day in day out when driving!

[@col2lin]

Hi, I have noticed how thorough you are and am impressed. When you were assembling the light you failed to remove your finger prints from the inside (the silver part that throws the light) before you put that red rim on. There are 1of 2 ways to solve the matter, you can open the light and wipe/remove the finger prints or just leave it as is hoping that your grandson will be like you when (if) he is fiddling with the light finds those prints. I keep an eye on what you are up to because you are happy to tell (me) what/why/how things are going, for that I say Thank you.

[@589193fz]

Simple, excellent video!

[@highdesertbill]

Great light modification! In 20+ years of restoring Farmall tractors I never had a OEM "contact style light fail to light up. I don't think I apply my paint as professionally as you and your father do so I don't get the insulating affect. Good Modification!

[@longbowrider]

Great Job!! A natural Teacher!

[@merlepatterson]

I used to buy star washers as a quick fix for all my contact ground systems.

[@fsj197811]

Thanks for sharing.

[@fokkojansma2077]

Beautiful craftsmanship again Squatch! Will last endlessly this way.

[@sepresley1]

Nice..I have a john deer they drilled a hole thru the bolt and ran power thru the bolt....good idea for a streamline look..

[@1crazynordlander]

My wife overheard you describing the electrical path to ground and she started singing the Dem Bones / Skeleton Dance song. (foot bone is connected to the leg bone, etc.) I had to share...Thanks for the video!

[@charlesward8196]

The electrical path to ground would have made Rube Goldberg proud! I am glad to see I am not the only one that solders crimped wire terminals.

[@danielbutler578]

I developed the desire to solder crimped connections after spending several hours tracking down corroded crimped connections on a carpet cleaning machine that was mounted in a van.

[@terrycannon570]

Excellent method of improving the ground. When it comes to electrical connections a bad ground is like showing up at a Brothel with no money. Thanks for bringing us along.

[@PaulG.x]

2:52 this is called a bayonet fitting. 6:00 the "shiny coating" is zinc plate . This will solder well with plain resin cored solder and moderate temperature. Too much heat from the "good ol' soldering iron" will oxidise the zinc . Abrading it will actually make it harder to solder and if the steel substrate is exposed , will be a poorer joint.

[@WACRE44]

Thanks so very much for this information 😊

[@rickyjessome4359]

Great job on the lights Squatch. Nice and tidy and a great way to eliminate a lot of small headaches. Looking forward to the next video. Cheers

[@j1166240]

Excellent video! For those of us that limited mechanical background, you made a great video that is easy to understand and follow! Love your work in this series! Thanks, Jeff

[@jwrappuhn71]

Excellent.

[@isbcornbinder]

I needed a way to get electricity out of the trunk to the LED tail lights on my 1940 Ford. I chucked a fender bolt in my lathe and drilled it through the center.

[@plumbum48]

Good “how to” lesson on grounding. Nice job!

[@tonyborgman9857]

If you don’t have punch’s a plumbing faucet washer is a quick substitute

[@harmlesscreationsofthegree1248]

Very neat. Nice vid 🙂

[@texasjetman]

Nice detailed explanation yes it’s hard to drill holes into newly purchased anything but a necessity in this case. Well done

[@sterff8990]

I’ve done it similar to that except I just soldered my wire and ran it through a grommet. I’ll have to try your fancy method next time!

[@karlfischer1011]

a lot of tractors got this mod in the field, anyway. Not as professionally done though--scrape paint with a jack knife, drill a hole with a nail & wrap the wire around a screw. 😂 I have encountered period light housings with a factory threaded hole for an optional ground. they were likely not oe lights for IH but some suppliers understood the ground wire was going to be necessary. also the first generation sealed beams in the pancake lights from IH in the mid 1950s used an external ground screw for the beam so you could easily add a ground wire.

[@tonyjones629]

Excellent, this what I will be using on my Farmall Super C and I plan to buy a Farmall Cub as well. You have some great video on restoring.

[@bobpaterson1845]

How fortunate for that modification to be shown in a video as I'm about to fit headlights to my Bradford UK built B250 tractor and had been wondering the best way to go about it 🤔 thank you 😁👍

[@WrenchHead]

Love the ground mod, doesn't seem much like a mod though seeing how professional it was done. It also wouldn't hurt to add dielectric grease in the light socket.

[@dreamlinerkoa6438]

Good episode, I would only add to solder the wire before connecting it, less chance of a cold joint 👍👍

[@lukestrasser]

Good morning Squatch!

[@josephpetito1351]

Thanks. These kinda things get overlooked sometimes with focus on the mechanical. Intermittent grounds are so frustrating!

[@drewscruis]

The whole point of the crimp is to allow flexibility. Now that its soldered it will be more prone to breaking due to vibration.

[@horstszibulski19]

The next step to let it look like from factory would be using a coax-type cable with the shield used as ground and spilt up to postive and negative right in the appliance. That would let it look like only a single wire goes into the housing. Only thing is to find some cable in coax style with appropiate amount of copper that can handle the 6 volts without too much drop ... Thx for showing! 👍👍👍

[@MatthewBerginGarage]

I must say Well done sir. I've been a maintenance electrician for the last 40 years and that was a beautiful explanation and a solid execution to a ground issue improvement. Saves you buying a gross of star washers for every bolt and connection. 😎👍

[@beesbo1856]

We had an old MM G900 that turned over slow even with two batteries. New batteries didn't help. After closer inspection, the ground from one of the batteries that attached to the frame was attached on top of paint and was not making good connection. A bit of sandpaper paint removal fixed the problem. Started like a dream. Good idea with the dedicated ground. The ground definitely completes the circuit!

[@alexfaught8717]

Cool, now chuck em in the original parts bin and install some led pod lights.

[@emerycreek8016]

Great way to deal with that new paint! Very clean. Do you run the ground wire to a cleaned up hidden ground somewhere or all the way back to the battery?

[@gilmartrevisan]

Hi, man. Please, consider using brass parts in electrical connections.

[@trailrider0194]

I like this upgrade. I put new lights on my Super C and they wouldn't work. I had a really hard time trying to find out where the ground probolem was. I'm about to tear it down to rebuild it. I will definitely do this upgrade when it goes back together. Thanks for sharing this. It seem like I learn something from every video you put out.

[@mathuetax]

When I first got my 1970 Volvo 4 years ago one of the first projects was to get dedicated grounds to the lighting, the most troublesome being the parking lights on the aluminium grill. Everything in that car used body contact grounds and it just doesn't allow full current over time. Eventually the dashboard switches and instrument panel will get proper grounds for everything.

[@150flyer4]

Decades ago as a youngster, I did the same mod to my bicycle light!! I’ve never been a fan of contact grounds and flickering lights.

[@daveanderson2316]

Reading through the comments. God bless you Sqautch, didn't realize how many arm chair elechickens there are out there.. Nice mod. Paint isn't a great conductor indeed..

[@daveanderson2316]

@@squatch253 I'll try to find you at Nowthen. I assume that "pro street' D2 will be on site?

[@sierraspecialtyauto7049]

Old John Deere tractors have the same problem, and I've made the same modification to the lights on my '57 620. I did take the small extra steps of cleaning the area around the head of the bolt to bare metal and adding a star washer between the head and the sheet metal.

[@Pilotman28]

Glad to see you got the band back together in the end.

[@deltekkie7646]

One thing I would reccomend is a star washer between your two outter hex nuts that will ground the light. I have always found that this adds a layer of "bite" to the connection. This is from an engineering viewpoint. Great Mod!

[@hobbyaddict9908]

I think I would have removed the positive through connector and used a grommet in its place then feed a 2 conductor wire through the grommet. A black (or whatever color you want) cover over the wire would make it look like a single conductor (AKA factory). A connector could be used inside the housing if wanted to allow the removal of the headlight if necessary/wanted. grounding would take place where ever you want (ground terminal strip, direct to battery, etc.).

[@darweb3417]

Full supporter of running dedicated wires for ground.

[@davidgibson5756]

Did something similar with my 76FJ40 on the taillights and the front indicators. Irregular sometime working flashers became rock solid.

[@neilshep50]

Good to see you use "proper" solder, not that horrible lead free stuff! Nice job.

[@robertamerrick2000]

I personally love doing wiring. I learned in college, GROUNDS, GROUNDS, GROUNDS.

[@ruben_balea]

I don't have a good punch set so I use the rubber washers made for water faucets, here almost all the Chinese bazaars have them in assorted packages for less than €1

[@Lloyd973]

Years ago I got tired of the winking lights on my trailers. Same procedure works on those lights as well. Just don’t forget to hook the white wire on the vehicle to a good ground.

[@Ihbinder14]

Very nice and clean! Thanks for going into detail on how you did that!

[@kylechrist]

Its the same process on AC lights with the only difference being that AC ran their wires through the mounting rod so I was able to avoid drilling a hole to run the ground wire out and was able to run it parallel with the power wire. It's a much cleaner look, maybe IH should've been taking lessons 😂

[@matthewhelton1725]

The iron is always hotter than the joint or the work. Tip: Apply the solder to the heated joint, not the iron, you'll get better wetting/flow that way. The old Fabric and Rubber cord for those old heavy soldering irons is called "Gutta-Percha"; Fabric-covered Rubber tubing with Gutta-Percha paste (as the insulator) inside of it.

[@HillbillySailor]

Love the modification! I'm not a fan of contact grounds. Have you considered upgrading to LED bulbs? I've upgraded to retrofit LED bulbs in my camping lamps and love them.

[@renejackson7652]

I don't know this tractor....but i think you now have to insulate the mounting connection. Reason being that if you have a faulty main ground, then you are going to ground through those little wires when you crank the starter? I have always called that type bulb connection, a bayonet fitting.

[@larrydavidson3402]

Great idea to add the ground wire. Lights will now always work well.

[@littlejason99]

I like it. Sometimes necessary reliability has to trump the "period correct" design.

[@AB-nu5we]

Agree with other posters, that's a nice, simple method to add grounding wire. I probably would have overthought it and wondered why it didn't work.

[@tarheelpatch3386]

Great video we did this to our 140 back in the 70s. One thing we did on the bayonet light socket we drilled a 1/8 hole through to make sure the solder made direct contact with bulb base they are steel and tend to rust.We used 10/32 brass screw and nuts with rubber fawcet washers to attach the ground wire to on back of the light housing

[@johnvaluk1401]

Thanks for the video and the process on how you accomplish this. You may want to double check inside. It looked as if the U clip rotated when you hooked the power spade up and either came very close to the ground lug or actually touched it,not sure if it matters ? Just saying. Thanks for video.

[@robertamerrick2000]

My friend and I do all our own wiring AND have done COMPLETE wiring systems in vehicles.

[@ronchappel4812]

I guess you could use coaxial wire for the ultimate original look?

[@noelstractors-firewood57]

Great fix.

[@tomanpcm]

😀

[@libsrdum]

Very elegant solution. Well done.

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

Awesome job thanks for sharing

[@donmajkol2856]

I have a question. What is your opinion on replacing the incandescent bulbs with a LED bulbs? I am restoring/upgrading an Allis Chalmers model B tractor. It will not be a trailer queen, but a working tractor on a micro-farm. I have already done some upgrades. I have coveted from hand brakes to foot brakes, added a hydraulic pump (OEM) and a 3-point hitch. Planning on adding the radiator shudders, converting to electric start(12 volt system), and adding lights. I do have to swap the engine as it had gotten water into cylinder 3. Again not a show tractor but a working one. Just looking for an opinion here. Thanks

[@matty2helpfull]

I'm definitely going to be doing that to some of my green tractors that's a very clean way to do that I really like that

[@kennethdavis9987]

Works great. I did this same mod to my 2n Ford. Thanks Squatch!

[@user-qe7sm7sf9b]

Love it

[@dougpark1025]

A good modification. My intuition would have been to run both ground and power through the existing hole and use a grommet to seal the wires. This assumes two wires fit through the original hole. A dab of silicone would finish the seal. Your way works great though.

[@martingardener90]

I was thinking the same thing, if two core round cable was used it would practically indistiguishable from the original.

[@andygotting9152]

Personally, I would have run a two core cable through a compression gland in place of the hot terminal, then run the cable back to the instrument box and made all my connections in that. Been doing something similar on 6 an 12v bikes for years.

[@Kevin75668]

When I solder stuff like this (non-copper to copper wire) I use zinc chloride flux to tin the non-copper, then wash it well. For the rest I use rosin. You don't want any trace of a corrosive flux left, or your wire will dissolve over the years.

[@randallcarpenter5313]

Looks like a good old American Beauty soldering iron.

[@RuralTowner]

As you were explaining way direct ground works I couldn't help but start hearing it DRY BONES theme. Toe bone's connected to the foot bone. Foot bone's connected the ankle bone. Etc. ONLY here it's: Light bulb grounds at the socket. Socket grounds at the bucket. Bucket grounds at the bolt stud. Etc.

[@Buck1954]

I like the conversion.

[@aserta]

Put a nut on the thread on that bolt on the clamp as well. Sucks when you see the glass fall on the ground. A nyloc should do wonders. Awesome conversion, would've modded the plastic seal too, myself, but it's on the underside so it should do. Our H no longer has the original lights, they're probably from another tractor, likely one of our local European ones. A bit taller, double bulb with low and high options (for legal reasons so it can be road legal).

[@karlfischer1011]

in 19 40 something fresh paint was the original locktite . then over time the manure in the air assisted. reassembly used crossthreading 😂

[@robertamerrick2000]

I prefer a dedicated ground setup as well.

[@KennyKizzleRustyNutzRanch]

Good and simple mod! Thanks for the tip!

[@aquilaaudax6033]

✋🏼🇦🇺👍🏼

[@geneguenther4325]

Thanks for the video on how to do that. Definitely a better system. Leaving the lights that cool or repainting them? Thanks again Toby

[@Vintagetvs]

It would be more difficult, since it seems to be attached to the housing, but you could drill a hole through the mounting stud and run the wire down though that, instead of drilling the housing. Also a little less visible.

[@seniorelectrician6831]

and the ankle bone in connected to ... Are you keeping it a positive ground as well or converting it to a negative ground

[@seniorelectrician6831]

@@squatch253 I agree, some items are a little more finicky about the ground but bulbs are not. The things you learn in 4 + yrs of electrical / electronics schooling as well as 20 plus yrs in that trade besides. Keep on smiling and hopefully I will see you at a threshing show next week end or sometime soon.

[@wagon9082]

Good video

[@monkeybarmonkeyman]

Might I suggest I think my mental state requires the nut to always be placed inside so the outside view of the headlight shell would have a finished bolt head, not the the threaded bolt and nut 😛 IOW, turn them around so you don't see all the excess threads and nut 😛 But its not my tractor so you of course may do it however you want to do it 🙂

[@monkeybarmonkeyman]

@@squatch253 True - but to my mind's eye, it would look better 🙂Thanks so much for your reply and putting up with all of us who comment & critique your work. You and senior do some great stuff while we get to watch.

[@iowawrench]

Thought you were going to upgrade to Holley Retrobright LED's. Wonder if they have the correct size round ones?

[@kokodin5895]

i know the pain of lingle wire lights from my bicycle, since front forks are connected to the frametrough plastic spring holders and in esence front lamp in my bike grounds trough break line but sinse i have led bulb in the back and it only conducts one way sometimes when front lamp go dim i get shocked in the hands trough metal break leavers : for non destructive reversable mod you could probably solder the return wire to a vopper washer and just put it under the bulb holder spring

[@evankibbe590]

Good job 😊

[@rgmoore]

I think I'd use some primer/paint to touch up that raw metal just to make me think I'm fighting off some rust.

[@JSchrumm]

Thats a fist foe me watching someone solder with a branding iron.

[@richardwilkens4577]

I had to do the same thing on my old John Deeres