fuse

That's impossible! Just cannot happen because you disconnected the negative (ground) cable from the battery, which is what you always do when working on electrical systems. You disconnected the ground cable instead of the positive one because you knew that you might accidentally touch the wrench to a steel part and cause a short circuit, possibly blowing up a perfectly good wrench.

I'm also very glad you had removed your watch and rings, that coming from someone that had to be reminded the hard way. And you never see a mechanic at work with a gold chain around their neck either.

Sorry, I don't know anything about wheeled tractors…

There is enough energy in a diesel starting battery to create and sustain an arc flash.

More about arc flashes here: http://www.google.com/search?q…..1I7GGIC_en

What kind of tractor is this…make, model and approximate year?  Does this tractor not have a gauge cluster?  You say you replaced the volt meter so I assume it is a separate gauge from the others.    

Until someone with intimate knowledge of that era tractor chimes in all I can suggest is to start checking currant from the battery to the fuse box, check all your fuses, perhaps a wire melted or a loose connection in the fuse box, etc.

Long, long ago I was removing the battery in my 64 T-Bird. The first mistake was not taking off the silver ring my folks had given me after a trip to Mexico. Second mistake was using channel-lock pliers instead of going and getting the right wrench. Mistake #3, disconnecting the positive cable first.

 Damn that hurt when the pliers welded themselves to the ring with my finger in the middle of it!

 Hope that makes you feel a little better 

If you have the tail style fuse box with the blade style fuses the top fuse is the main one.   It should be a 30 amp fuse.  But I am not sure on your tractor.  Also I assume there is a wire on two terminals on your volt meter.  If so things might be fed through it.  Where does the wire go once it leaves the voltmeter?   You will have to trace with a test light to see where you are losing it. 

Huh? A voltmeter doesn't have an “IN” and “OUT” like an ammeter does. These ammeters are internally shunted so full current passes through the meter. Now I'm really confused

Who cares though as long as it works, right?

I think what he means is after shorting out the new gauge with a wrench, which caused power going in but nothing going out, he replaced it with his old gauge and is now back in business.

OK, that make sense – he blew the shunt.

But he still wants to call it a voltmeter, oh never mind…

My first experience with this was a 1937 Chevy truck I had just bought and towed to the house. After lubing the valves and beating them with a brass drift to get them unstuck and got it running I found nothing else had electrical power. A friend pulled the amp gauge and on the back was a piece of mica board with a wire wrapped around it about ten wraps, and broken. My friend says,” time for a trip to Goodwill” and we go get a waffle iron. He pulls out one of the heating coils and wraps the same amount of winding onto the back of the gauge and viola, we have juice. That was the only “fuse” that truck came with from the factory.

msshearin, I think you did a fry job when you had the sparks flying.  Glad you got it going.  Lesson learned I would think

Glad you got it figured out quickly and rather cheaply, I love happy endings

Tin wrote:

“A friend pulled the amp gauge and on the back was a piece of mica board with a wire wrapped around it about ten wraps, and broken.”

That was your shunt.