I am looking to the hamb for help an a truly stumping problem in my charging system. So I converted to 12 volt in my 48 ford. All was well for a few weeks but like a fool I never put a multi meter on to see where the voltage was. Well it was way overcharging and slung the solder. New carquest voltage regulator. No problem. I put a new armature and voltage regulator in and all was well for about a week when the voltage regulator stuck closed and cooked the armature. This happened twice now. I am getting frustrated. Lol. I almost bought a powergen but I just couldn't do it. Well here is the real problem I am asking for help with. I bought a backup generator from my repair man and put it on the car. I also installed a new voltage regulator. Started car and it wasnt charging. While doing this I decided to replace the wires from gen to voltage regulator and bat to vr. Still will not charge. It will not full field either. I checked voltage at the bat post on the vr and I have mid 12s. I checked continuity between all wires and everything was low resistance. After all this I took the gen to the gen rebuild guy. He threw it on his test machine and it had good output. 15 volts. Somewhere in my car is the problem and I can't figure it out. I figured someone on here has had to have had a similar problem. This is the old girl in question.
I'd say the first step is tracking each wire that connects to the generator and or regulator to it's source on the other end. Short or bad connection or connected wrong may be one thing that is the cause of the problem.
....There is a step you do not mention it is called polarize,..it is a easy step using a wire,what you will do is touch 2 terminals on the regulator at the same time with the wire,it will spark and you should be good to go,...It has been a long time since I done this but if you do some searching or a old timer like me can recal how to do it may be they will post it,...Miller
I did touch the field wire to the bat wire to polarize it and I have taken all wires loose several times to check continuity of the wires. All checks out I also used three different color wires for the ground armature and field wires. I am completely stumped All good input so far. Thank you
After the installation of a battery, generator or voltage regulator follow these procedures. The terminals on the voltage regulator are labeled with letters and this is where you will do the polarizing procedure. Both of the components will have battery power so do not start the vehicle or turn on the ignition switch before polarizing them. You will need a small piece of wire fourteen or sixteen gauge with alligator clips on the ends. Find the "B" terminal on the regulator and attach one of the alligator clips, find the "D" terminal and touch the terminal with the other alligator clip. You can touch the terminals a few times and it will produce a soft light spark. Under no cir***stances touch the "F" terminal or any other part of the regulator or you could damage the regulator. Found this info somewere..............................
Ford style or heavy duty polarization is done with the field disconnected and momentarily touched to the bat terminal according to the carquest vr paperwork. I will give that another try and see if I get a different result. Keep the ideas coming.
The Ford charging system is different then the GM / Delco systems. when polarizing the Ford system you want to touch the "bat" term to the "Field" term like you said you did. If you still don't have any charge, take the cover off of the regulator and see if the cut out relay is closed. the cut out relay is the one closest to the "bat" terminal. It will most likley not be closed, next check to see if the current or voltage regulator points are closed. if one or both of those are not closed it will not charge. if the voltage and current regulator points ARE closed and still not charging, see if you can clean the points. If you can not get anywhere with this...you can allways byp*** the regulator compleatly. to do this just connect a jumper from the battery terminal on the regulator to the field terminal. ONLY DO THIS FOR A SHORT TIME as you will put a big load on the generator, does it charge now? if so, check if it will charge without the jumper wire. This only applies to a FORD/B circuit charging system.
I've had three aftermarket NAPA regulators go bad on me. One of them stuck open and nearly burnt up the car in my garage after a trip. Find an NOS 50-60's regulator. I am running mine for four years now. Yes polarizing is necessary.
I found an NORS Atlas brand regulator that has sat on a shelf for 50 years. Pretty sure it was made in America by Americans. I polarized mine when I bolted it on. I was busy for a few minutes when I first got the engine started months later. Finally I looked and sure enough it was charging its *** off.
I found two NOS Voltage regulators in the shed carquest puts all the outdated stuff in. They were packaged in 1968. One is 35 amp and the other is 25 amp. Bought them and a couple of ford kingpin sets all for $20. I now have three brand new voltage regulators and two nos regulators. I just turned 30 and I hunt for old stuff all the time. But you are correct, not many young people know or care about old parts or rusty iron
I am making the 100 mile trip tomorrow and taking the car to the generator guy to let him do his magic. My fiancé is following along in her car just in case the battery goes flat on the journey. It's too easy calling a tow truck
The trip went well. Made it all the way no problem. The gen guy called and he was kinda baffled also. He went through all his normal steps and had the same results as I. He is going to put new field coils in tomorrow and see how that turns out.
I had one go bad, 2 weeks in on a '64 el camino(external regulated alternator) moral of the story, they dont make 'em like the used to
I can't get over the thinking around here. Why is everybody so scared of a generator? It's not like electronic ign. you can still get home if it does break. Sure if you get one from a junkyard with over a 100K on it and it dies in 20K is that a faulty generator? I started driving before alternators were an option. It was not like "finally a reliable charging system." Generators have been perfectly fine for most of my adult life. The only time I had to have a hotrod towed was because an alternator shorted out inside and damn near burnt the truck up. It was a used alternator of unknown mileage. I rebuilt my own generator and I think it looks *****en. Am I nuts? probably but I'm having fun.
I'd bet most of the problems people are having with generators is due to corrosion. Using old electrical parts is risky because a little corrosion on contacts, points, windings, etc will hamper the proper flow of the little electrons. Even NOS parts that have sat in a clean environment for years will possibly have some corrosion on the important surfaces. Sure, seek out NOS stuff, but check it all for cleanliness before install. And obviously, clean all the original parts you may use too.
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