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Showing results for tags 'generator not charging'.
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Hi Seems the final hurdle on my rewiring journey is now facing me. The generator doesn't seem to be putting anything out... Before my rewire of the car, when the key was switched on, the ammeter went just left of '0', indicating draw from the coil off the battery. Once the car started, the ammeter always went over to the '+' side, showing charging back into the battery. Even at a low idle, it was always on the '+' side. Of course, after plenty of cranking etc, he ammeter read higher at first, and then went down, indicating that the regulator was doing its job. Unfortunately, this isn't happening now.... I have the generator wires hooked up correctly - field terminal (small terminal on the generator) to the field 'F' terminal on the regulator, Armature cable to the 'A' terminal on the reg. Now I've researched the heck out of the forum archives on this one. I see there is always plenty of discussion about polarizing the generator via the regulator - however this is normally when the gen has been serviced. Mine didn't get taken out of the car during the rewire...so shouldn't need this? I also see a test whereby the field wire can be removed from the regulator and taken to ground - this should peg the ammeter to the '+' side of the gauge. I've done this test - nothing. no movement in the gauge at all. The other indcators which alert me are that with the headlight switch pulled on, the ammeter goes right down into '-' territory and stays there, no matter the revs...and the instrument lights (yep - I've got those now!!) don't brighten with any revving of the engine. Seems something is amiss somewhere...? Is there a way that a multimeter can be hooked up to test for current/amp/voltage off the generator when the engine is running. I can't quite work out which way to read this circuit... I've checked all the terminals - seem tight and have good connections. Any suggestions for tests, or perhaps restate the tests that I need to be doing to see the problem. I can't believe that the generator would stop working just because of a re-wire elsewhere - like I said, I didn't touch it. How does one 'test' a regulator?