Can I get some help diagnosing a parasitic draw on my tractor? 6V system, positive ground, side mount distributor and generator system. Seems to be a new development from last year.

Battery charges fine, to about ~6.42ish volts. When running, the AMPS meter needle is just past 0 toward the + side at about 600 RPM. When I turn on the head lights, the needle goes to about 15 on the + side. The battery appears to be charging when running as well, showing 6.33V and climbing slowly. The odd thing is this: when the battery cables are connected, volt meter shows 6.25 and dropping slowly. When I unplug the red cable on the negative battery post, that feeds the starter solenoid, the volts jump up to 6.38. Connect the cable again, back to 6.25 or less. However, when I check for amp draw, I get 0 on my meter, (two different meters.)

Any thoughts or ideas?

Had that trouble on my 2N turned out to be the ignition resistor, new one on and no more problems.

I have a hard time thinking how that resistor could cause a parasitic draw.

I would disconnect the battery and use an ohm meter. You can determine the low resistance path to ground by disconnecting leads one at a time until the short disapears.

Absent a short to ground somewhere or, perhaps a welded (stuck) VR contact, there should be no "parasitic draw" in your OEM 6V 8N electrical system.

That said, your generator should generate 8+ volts while charging a discharged 6V battery.

Your voltage readings to 2 decimal places tell me that you are using a digital multimeter to measure voltages. Absent a good DMM that will accurately measure RMS voltage, you cannot successfully use an inexpensive DMM to measure voltages in a charging system using a vibrating contact voltage regulator.

Sounds to me that your charging system is operating as it should.

Thanks. So, my generator is weak, and it’s either a shorted ground, or a bad VR, right?

Cannot say that from available information.

If battery is fully charged generator output voltage will be near battery voltage.

Only if battery is not fully charged will generator output voltage be much above nominal battery voltage and then only at engine RPM well above 600 RPM.

From available information, it appears that your charging system is operating as it should.