6volt Ford wiring charging questions HELP

I am having some charging issues with my Av8 and I thought I would check on the wiring and see what others thought.

I am running a 32-38 6volt gen with the cutout. positive ground., ammeter gauge from 50 plymouth

Wire goes from cutout to ammeter post then another wire from other ammeter post to bat post on solinoid.

power tap for ignition and headlight switch on ammeter post that goes to bat post on solinoid

Headligts wired using dual relay so dimmer switch turns on relay, power to relay from Bat post on solinoid.


Here's what is happening:

Whe using signals or parking lights ammeter shows discharge, when headlights are put on the ammeter diacharges then goes to middle. (car off or on)

Last week when driving at night the battery went dead and wasn't charging. I sent rebuilt generator back to guy in Texas and he says generatior tests fine. (on his machine 8 amps and 12 volts?) Received generator back tonight and ran car, showed charging on ammeter then on way home no charge and if you take cable off battery while running, car dies.

Is there something wrong with the wiring or should I be looking at the generator or cutout ?

Why doen't ammeter show discharge when headlights are on ? because of relay?

I appreciate any comments or suggestions, I can use all the help I can get.

Thanks

 

***uming the ammeter is functioning properly, the headlights are getting power from the wrong side of the ammeter. Trace the hot lead connected to the relay back to where it is connected, disconnect it and hook it up to the correct side of the ammeter.

 

Your loads (lights etc.) should be on the generator side of the ammeter, not the battery side. Switch them around and it should work

 

Check your voltage regulator ( three wires ) if you have one. You never said any about it. One wire goes to the field on the generator. An other wire goes to the armature on the generator. The third wire goes through the amp meter ( two posts ), then the ignition swtich and on to the battery. Do not forget to polarize the voltage regulator when replacing or new wiring the regulator.

 

The instruction sheet with the realy specifially states "****ect power to battery or starter switch"

would this have anything to do with erratic charging?

 

it uses a cutout (one wire to ammeter) and I did polarize it

 

PS. If you are not familiar with a cutout, you'd ***ume that the generator was not charging if you came back to a dead battery after it was parked for a while. It may be charging just fine when it's running but when the points in the cutout stick, it will drain the battery very quickly after it's parked. The battery when charged back up will test fine and the generator will test fine. I'd get a solid state cutout if I ever ran a cutout again.

I hope this helps.

 

It is a solid state cutout.

I ran it this morning a few times and now it is charging fine.

Not sure where to look next -- grounds?

 

Looks like it is the armature possibly a short. I am sending the unit back to the rebuilder and we'll see what happens next. thanks for the input