On a tractor with magneto ignition, there is no need for an ignition switch because the magneto is not wired into the battery circuit in any way. If you have a Wico X magneto, (which was a replacement magneto), there might be a terminal for a "kill switch". It should "ground out" the mag. However, the early tractors originally had Wico C mags, which didn't have that "ground terminal". You were supposed to shut off the fuel (I'm talking about old fashioned, heavy "distillate" fuel, now) and let the carb run out of fuel. Then you would drain the carburetor bowl of "tractor fuel" so that the next morning you could turn on the "gasoline tank" and start the tractor on gasoline. Then when it warmed up, you'd switch to the "tractor fuel" tank. Then repeat the procedure the next time you shut it off. My question to the "IDIOT" who wrote the manual is, why can't you just switch back to the gasoline tank on your way back to the barn so that by the time you get there, there would be pure gasoline in the carburetor bowl, and you would be all set for the next morning? Sheesh!!
Anyway, by the time the Wico X magneto was designed, many of the tractors were already designed for gasoline only, and a more "sane" way to shut them off was desired, hence the switch. And nowadays, when we run ALL of them on gasoline, it makes perfect sense to have a "kill switch" that merely "grounds" the mag. If you have a Wico C mag, then adjust your throttle linkage so that when you pull the handle all the way back, the engine stalls.
Did I make sense, or did my "pontifficating" about that "idiot" get in the way? |
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