Technical How to get started?

For me, and my money, rebel is a better answer than painless. I felt the quality of it was great, and their tech service helped me diagnose an issue (that I created) in my system in a mater of minutes via the phone. Direct replacement might be a bit easier, but I doubt itd be much more work to use a universal. I don't know what the heck I'm doing with electrical but wired my truck front to back with only 1 problem (pinched wire in column that shorted out left turn signal occasionally)

 

Hell no, not about efficiency, haha. More like how much charge does it provide? The generator bearings are quiet. When it's idling, the amp gauge reads just above zero. I don't have a voltmeter that works- the one that my dad installed years ago fluctuates all over the place, like a vacuum gauge on an engine that has a bad valve. He said that it has pretty much always been like that, and he attributed it to something in the generator armature? I don't really know what that means. The original gauge on the dashboard cluster pretty much sits on the middle mark between discharge and charge, slightly toward charge. I did read once somewhere that generator cars will commonly even read a slight discharge at idle, but I don't know the physics of that or even if that's an accurate statement.

Would it be ok to take my voltmeter/ohmmeter, set it to DCV, and attach it to the positive post on the gen and ground it to the block to see what it's putting out in real time? Sorry about the noobie question. Thanks in advance.

Chad

 

Thanks to squirrel and Gearhead for your responses, btw!

 

measure the voltage at the battery, not the generator. Measure it first when the truck is off, then start the engine, and measure it again. rev the engine a little, see if it changes. Let us know what you find.

yes, use the DC Volts setting.

 

ok, the voltmeter I have only has a few settings, the lowest two are 10v and 50v. On 50v setting the battery reads 12v as it sits. Started and idling, it reads 14v. Idled up to 1500-2000 RPM via idle screw (I was doing this test by myself) it was still unchanged at 14v.

So, at least, it is charging! Man, that truck can put out some carbon monoxide, even with the garage fully open.

 

sounds like it's working ok.

It's not carbon monoxide you're smelling (CO is odorless). It's probably unburned hydrocarbons.

 

Well, that clears that up (pun intended).

Now back to the brake ground problem. And the tires and brakes. One step at a time on a long, fruitful journey.