hey, last night when I parked the 54, smoke began to come from my generator....soooo basically I'm wondering-should I buy a new one or try to get this one rebuilt??? Where would I find one other than a junkyard?? It has been converted to 12v, its a 235-6cyl. Any ideas on replacements????
You let the smoke out of it?! Damn...you're screwed. I had the same thing with my '54 Buick. Took it to a shop to have it "Rebuilt." $65 and ten days later, the new smoke leaked out of it, too. (they put new brushes in and painted it. That's all) I found a truely rebuilt one at a mom-n-pop parts store, and got a lesson. He showed me what to look for. Rebuild it yourself. Get a factory shop manual or vintage Motors Manual to see how it comes apart and goes together. Classic Chevy International sells all the stuff needed to rebuild one. Or at least they did. I also found out that Power Master has just released an alternator that looks like a 12-volt GM generator. Puts out more amps. I don't know what they cost, but I'm going to put one on my '57 gasser. -Brad
I never did this personally.. But the prize setup on generators was the VW generator and regulator. It was a popular swap among the harley crowd, HD being most known for it's reliable generator setup.
Bear in mind that the generator is pretty much just three wads of copper wire rotating past each other... Smoke has to mean either a failure of insulation between the various coils of wire and ground within the generator or trouble in the wiring/regulator. The latter is more common...either the wrong thing grounding or failure of a control limiting current cause smoke leakage. Be real suspicious of the externals before you fire up a rebuilt generator.
What Bruce said. I'd also add that its possible you really, REALLY roasted a bearing. Or, the wraps around the fields got too warm and decided to ignite. Could have been an internal short that just fried some wires too. Few different scenarios will cause that style of generator to smoke. Sent you a PM 54Hellair, in case you'd like to have your original unit rebuilt.
Another nuclear disaster scenario: total bearing failure allows armature windings to drag on field coils til all insulation is ground through...if this is the problem, gouges will make it abundantly obvious. If armature or field coils are toast, consider a swapmeet junker to rebuild--it will likely be easier and cheaper to do bearings and brushes on a better lump than to change out major bits. Field coils ar not easy to remove... I still betcha root problem is in wiring or in regulator.
If you need another generator and regulator anyway, and the car is set up for 12 VDC now, the one wire alternator could be attractive right now. I just understand the electricity, but once the brackets and belt is handled you just need the gen light to become the field flash circuit.
Hey Pm Dirty2 or Dirty32, they own a shop and they are very well known and trusted all over the country. It might cost ya a little 2 ship it but thats a small price to pay for a piece of mind. Not to mention your will be helping a fellow HAMBer. They are located in the dallas area BTW Big Tony Looserville Texas Forget cookies and milk... Give me titties and beer
Kind of BTT, if you plan on putting the car back the way it was, The generator just puts out so much electricity, and pumps it into the battery. The regulator has a relay and resistor, the relay is to isolate the generator when it's not pumping out electricity, and so it can't be a load to the battery (reverse power). The resistor just dissapates any extra as heat and burns open when the battery goes open circuit, after a while. If the generator lived, and it's easy to tell, and you would prefer to not go to single wire alternator, look for the burned wiring. If you have no burned wiring you just might be knocking in shaft bearings. Burned wires probably indicate failed regulator and/or toasted generator.
thanks for the quick replies....I'm not trying to make it look "original" I just want something that works...would a VW generator really work if the bracket and belt were fabbed to work??? I've got a spare one....is an alternator just a "swap" or would there be wiring changes?? again, thanks for the help, you guys rule...
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