Thanks in advance for helping me. I'm working on a 1954 Hudson with a positive ground 6 volt system. Stock autolite generator and a replacement voltage regulator. I am buying the NAPA voltage regulator VR25, which is supposed to be the stock replacement item. I am polarizing it the way the instructions say to in the new box, which is to connect a jumper wire for from the BAT to the ARM very briefly, less than 2 seconds. My problem is, the points stick after the ignition is off and it starts to drain the battery. The first regulator took a light tap and the points would disconnect. The second one takes a bit more of a thump before the points disconnect. Is there a reason I'm missing of why the points are sticking? I'm pretty sure I have everything hooked up the way it was with the original regulator. Can someone please help me. With this 6V system I can't afford to drop the voltage much at all before the car won't start. Thanks!!
I have used Napa regulators on my 12 volt flathead for many years. Why I dont know but I stopped this year. I had three stick and one of them burnt up my generator. After that I went to a NOS and was happy. I blame the chinese junk. You could change over to 8 volts. Easy solution too. Heres a interesting link.. Read my reply in this thread. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389991
I had the same problem with my 55 farilane that you are having. after a few different regulators i just started messing with the points and the stopped sticking. just keep messimg with them, or get another one from a different supplier and see what that does. 8 volt battery is a good way to go if you plan on keeping the 6 volt system for sure.
I think the disconnect switch is a good idea, I only worry about loosing a few amps from the 6 volt battery through the switch. For now I've been disconnecting the battery. And... I have now tried messing with the points to the point where it's not charging at all. The generator is putting out voltage, but it's not getting to the battery. I'm wondering if the little points are just too far fried. I tried cleaning them and using a points file but think they may be too far gone already from when they were sticking. I'm going to keep adjusting them to see if I can get the voltage regulator to work again.
So I fiddled enough and got the voltage regulator to charge again. I ventured outside my neighborhood and parked for a bit and disconnected the battery. When i left, I connected the battery, started the car and drove off. The car made it a few miles before it started lurching and finally died. The battery was drained, but the points on the VR were not stuck. I checked voltage and found that the current from the generator was reading opposite of the battery, and was draining the battery. I'm ***uming this is because I didn't polarize the VR when I connected the battery? Do I have to polarize the regulator ever time I disconnect the battery? Is this a positive ground thing?
the gen needs polarized not the reg. If the reg points stick you may have damaged the gen. Sticking points allow the fields to be fed battery voltage when they should be isolated. It sounds like you should leave the fiddeling to the musicians and take it to a generator shop. disconnecting the bat should not cause a change of polarity.
My understanding was the generator is polarized when the regulator is polarized. This is done by connecting a jumper wire briefly from the BAT to the ARM on this regulator. Is there a different method of polarizing a positive ground generator? My fiddling included going back to factory point and air gap specs on the regulator per the manual I have. I'm sure I'm competent enough to do that successfully. But bringing the regulator back to factory specs did not fix the issue. You could be right that the generator and/or VR are damaged and need repair. Otherwise I would not be working on this issue and would be working on something else instead.
When i got my Comet the GEN light was on and the battery wouldn't hold a charge so i ended up getting the generator rebuilt. After i got it back i didn't have to polarize anything because the guy who rebuilt it polarized both the generator and threw in a new regulator for me. Lights been off ever since.
On these generated systems, 6v positive ground or not, does the dash warning light have to be functional for the rest of the system to work properly? There is no amp gauge in this car, just a dash indicator light.
Not sure how it works on a Hudson, but you could do what i did and find someone in your area who specializes in generator rebuilding. Just take it out along with the regulator and have him test out both. Thats how i found out my regulator was also bad.
there are + gnd regs and - grd regs also there are universal + or- regs. The difference being the material the points are made of. You may want to inquire if the reg you have is neg or pos gnd. Sometimes the wrong one will work, but eventually the points will stick. You may also want to put a condensor on the reg. again the reg isn't polorized by using the jumper, the gen is. at this point you may want to also check the fields to see if they haven't been damaged. did you see any smoke when the points stuck?
Some interesting facts on Polarizing.. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256038&highlight=polarize
There was no smoke when the points stuck, but I could see the arm on the points discolor before I pried the two points apart. I'm sure that was not nomral. This happened on a properly polarized, not adjusted out of the box NAPA direct part number replacement regulator for my model car. So, I've come to the conclusion that I must (re)polarize the regulator (generator) every time I disconnect the battery. This has been a footnote in most every written manual I've found on regulators and generators. That is, anytime the battery is disconnected, the system must be re-polarized. I'm wondering in cases where people have not had to re-polarize after they have disconnected the battery for any period of time if they have a negative ground system. I'm sure I could take this to a generator repair shop and have them fix it for me, but I will still not understand the system if someone else fixes it for me. I'm the type of guy that wants to understand it and fix it myself if I can. I'm wondering if the art of adjusting regulators to their generators is lost, except for the few generator repair shops around. I'm pretty sure my cars issue is due to lack of proper adjustment on the regulator. Before I toss in the towel and install and internally regulated alternator, I'll try to get this positive ground 6v system working. I have not read anywhere that the light for the generator must be functional for the system to work but I'm wondering if this is the case. I know it's true for some alternators. I'll test the system with a functional and non functional indicator lamp and post the results.
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