It seems like on my '53 Buick Special, I finish one problem and another pops up...it's constant! Anyway, I had it out for a ride yesterday, and the ammeter dropped to discharge and stayed there...I threw the voltmeter on and it read 5.98 volts, no matter how high I revved the motor. The charging system was supposedly gone through before I bought the car, and the voltage regulator looks new...any idea where to start looking for problems, or more specifically, how to test the generator and regulator separately on the car? Any help's appreciated!
You need one of these or something like it. There will be an extensive section on charging systems with all the diagnostics and pictures. It's not really practical to try to explain all the diagnostics here. IMHO They are cheap on Ebay. Do a search on Ebay. This one covers the years back to 1949. All makes and models. I like to get one a couple of years newer than my year car. There are different brand names of manuals. I'm partial to Motors manuals. You will refer to it often. Lots of great information. Old timers often have several with the years over laping to get full coverage.
Just a follow up, Tommy, I have one of those, but not for that car, but I do have the shop manual...the shop manual has all tests in amps and I don't have anything to test amps with...at any rate, I fired the car up and drove it around yesterday and it was charging fine...7.25 volts. I don't know what the problem was or is, maybe some junk in the regulator, or moisture...who knows...I'll probably look for one of those motor manuals now though, because the shop manual for the car is probably the worst shop manual I've ever read! Thanks for the heads up!
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