Need WD45 6v wiring diagram

The Doc is correct. If anything sits long enough with a one wire Alternator connected directly to the Battery, the Alternator acts as a dynamo and will drain a Battery down to dead. Just depends on the Battery and the electronics in the Alternator. I always preach to my customer's, one of the best things you can invest in is a good Battery shut off switch. If the vehicle sits for long periods of time before its used, its always a good practice to sever the Battery from the vehicle. Doesn't matter what the vehicle is. Its either that, or remove the Battery from the vehicle and put it in an area where you can put a Battery tender on it to keep the Battery "active". You'll get the longevity out of the Battery keeping it active. If it gets pretty cold in your area, remove the Battery and bring it in to a warmer area and put a tender on it.

Luke, take your Generator to a local rebuilder and have him throw it on his machine and have him do some load tests on it to see if the unit is working as it should. If it passes all load tests that are put on it, in your mind you know the Gennies good. Then move on to the next item. Make sure the 3 position switch isn't cooked. If it looks okay visually where it doesn't look like it got hot or anything, clean up the instrument box where it bolts to to make sure its grounded correctly.  Next would be to inspect the wiring. If any of it is questionable rewire it via the wiring diagram Steve posted for ya. Lastly, have the Battery your using draw tested to make sure your power supply is in tip top shape to use. There's only 3 cells to a 6V Battery, so if you have one cell starting to go away, you've lost a lot of your power source. And a bad cell or low cell can cause the Generator to start a high charge because the low or bad cell in the Battery is putting a load on the system.  Once all of that is taken care of, there's no reason in the world why the 6V system won't work correctly. We're not liftin' the space shuttle here. Go to it!......

Steve@B&B

There are a couple reasons why an Alternator will drain the Battery. If you have an Alternator that has a diode or trio fail, that would cause a ground in the electronics, close the loop in the unit and draw current from the Battery. If the unit is a one wire, because the unit is hooked directly to the Battery, this keeps the magnetic field "active" in the VR. When the magnetic field is constantly activated, it steals mili-volts from the Battery. Eventually, if sitting long enough it can and will drain the Battery. As I mentioned earlier in a post, it acts as a "dynamo" because its constantly active. When you insert a key switch in the middle and control the current to the VR, when the key is off so is the VR. No magnetic field activation, no drain.  The voltage sense circuit (#2) on the Alternator, works great on larger Tractors such as the "D" series on up. This circuit can be run parallel with the heavy output circuit and either run to a junction at the dash area, Voltmeter + or Starter solenoid. The voltage sense circuit now monitors current usage and signals the VR when to ramp up the Alternator when loads are applied to the system. The Battery stays "full" the Alternator keeps 14.2 volts throughout the system keeping components working properly, engine running correctly and makes for a happy system.  Three wire system is the bestest!  

Steve@B&B

The WD45 had a Battery ignition. (Distributor)  So a key switch is needed to send power to the Coil. Simple ON/OFF is what was used as OEM.  So you did good with a new key switch. If your Tractor was changed over to a Starter solenoid, then you would need either a key crank switch, or pull power off the Ignition switch to power up a start button. 

Now, looking at that 3 position switch, I can see its all wired incorrectly. Here's what should be on that switch.

Jumper wire from the Ammeter minus (-) side to the fuse tower on the H/L switch.

Headlight circuit & Tailight circuit (if equipped) to the screw terminal that has the "S" on it.  (If you look real close, you'll see letters next to the screws.) Looking at the switch, it looks like the terminal without the screw in it is the "S" terminal that should be used.

Generator Field circuit to the resistor leg on the bottom of the switch.

Should be no more than 4 wires on that switch. (3 with no Tailight or Work light)

There should be a flat resistor on the bottom of that switch. If not, you need one. This is why nothing is working correctly. I have the resistors in stock if interested. As Phil mentioned I do service/rebuild/restore and make parts for those OEM Delco switches. I'm probably the only knuckehead on the planet that does. Take all those wires off and clean up that switch. The only wire that looked correct on that switch was the jumper circuit from the Ammeter to the fuse tower.....

Steve@B&B

Lon(MN) wrote: Looks like the switch resistor is installed on the generator.

Good catch! Seems as though that would leave it stuck on low charge.

Somebody really hacked that system up.

I looked online and really dont see a WD45 type wire diagram. I marked up the B -C Print to show a COIL- DISTRIBUTOR - STARTER SOLENOID - Key SWITCH in addition to the original 6V POS ground system with the Resistor light switch.. I believe this to be correct.

Replaced the key switch with a brand new Briggs/Stratton key switch last fall, 70 years of use, been finicky for the last number years of having to set it in a certain position to get it to work.

  When I changed the this tractor over to the DelcoTron alternator, I put in a new Niehoff lighted ammeter of higher amps and attached the 'on' wire for the regulator to the key switch and rewired the light switch so it was off in the 'IN' position, middle position turned the front headlights on with halogen sealed beams and 32cp bulb in the red tail light on the fender.  Third position, all the way out, turned on the FireCracker halogen driving lights bolted ontop of the hood and the rear halogen tail light. Man that tractor had good lights. Was fun cultivating at night with it. 

  With all the lights on it, a generator would not have kept up. Having the alternator was really nice.

 I had removed the resistor off the light switch too when I had converted it over to 12 volts.