daddyo23 Posted July 27, 2009 Report Posted July 27, 2009 Hey all, couple questons. I recently had the bearings on my generator go bad and burned it up. I went to the local guy who had a genny like mine and we cleaned it up, put new brushes in and I thought life would be good.I put it in and my amp gauge began acting like a tach. At idle it's a zero, 'bout normal, but when you hit the gas the amp gauge pegs:eek:. It is a 40 amp genny so I could see if the batt. was down but as long as you're giving it gas, It's charging full steam. Battery seems to have a good charge on it. One shop memtioned the regulator, so I pulled that off and one wire inside looked like it was toasted. Ordered another reg., put that in but the genny is still charging like crazy. I did the field test in the manual but the test light did not light up so, what to try now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. On another note, I'm only getting about 3.7v to my fuel sender at times. Sometimes it reads right, other times it's low. When low, voltage is down. Guess I'll have to try a new wire from the gauge to sender. Any other ideas will be tried. Thanks for letting me pour out my problems. This old boat will drive me nuts at times. Wayne P. Quote
TodFitch Posted July 27, 2009 Report Posted July 27, 2009 What does the generator do if the field wire between it and the voltage regulator is disconnected at the generator? If it continues to charge, I'd guess you have an internal short on the field and you will need to open up the generator to check it out. If it stops charging, then connect the field wire at the generator. I assume it will start charging like mad. Disconnect the field wire at the voltage regulator. If it is still charging then the wire from the generator to the regulator is grounding out and needs to be replaced. If it does not charge with the field wire disconnected at the regulator then you probably have a regulator problem. Quote
daddyo23 Posted July 28, 2009 Author Report Posted July 28, 2009 red tag, or a green tag on that genny? red tag- I disconnected the field wire and it kept charging. I'll pull it tomorrow and take a look. Thanks, have to go to work now and drive most of the night. Quote
James_Douglas Posted July 28, 2009 Report Posted July 28, 2009 What battery are you using ? James Quote
randroid Posted July 28, 2009 Report Posted July 28, 2009 daddyo23, Polarize the regulator and call me in the morning. -Randy Quote
daddyo23 Posted July 28, 2009 Author Report Posted July 28, 2009 What battery are you using ?James I have a napa commercial 6v batt. 635 c.c.a. Randy, I did polarize the reg. and pulled the field wire off the genny. Still charging like crazy. I'm going to pull the gen. and see what I can fnd. Look out Ma, I'm goin' in!. Quote
Plymouthy Adams Posted July 28, 2009 Report Posted July 28, 2009 pay close attention to the isolator on the field terminal..it may be damaged... Quote
randroid Posted July 28, 2009 Report Posted July 28, 2009 daddyo23, I'm going to tell a tale on myself that's a little embarrassing but may prove to be beneficial to you. I have a '67 VW Bug that I needed to rewire due to a fire in the engine compartment (PO), and when it came time to wire the generator I somehow got two wires crossed and hooked the wrong field wire to the regulator. Before I found my mistake the generator was putting out some hellacious voltage sort of like yours. Granted, with our P-15s we don't need to pass the wires through a tunnel in the firewall and everything is rather cut-and-dried, but is there any chance you might have connected a wrong wire somewhere? That would produce the same symptoms you're experiencing. I'm guessing here, but so are you and this might help. -Randy Quote
Young Ed Posted July 28, 2009 Report Posted July 28, 2009 Randy and Wayne I had a similar issue with my car too. Someone had put the cover for the regulator on backwards so I was getting the top and bottom wire in the wrong spots because I followed the cover. My actual issue after checking the generator and replacing the regulator a couple times was loose wires on the gauge. Quote
daddyo23 Posted July 31, 2009 Author Report Posted July 31, 2009 Now it won't charge. Found that the lower thru- screw was on top of the field wire and rubbed through the insulation. Fixed that, put the genny back on and no over charge. Now, nothing. Not charging at all. Tried a couple of tests in the manual, but, I don't know if I fried the regulator or the generator is bad now. It's funny, first it's charging too much and now not at all. Well, I just put in 12 hrs. and I'm tired so I'll sleep on it and probably dream of a giant genny chasing me down the street. Thanks for the advice and we'll keep plugging away. Maybe an altenator would be the way to go...... Quote
randroid Posted August 2, 2009 Report Posted August 2, 2009 daddyo23, In a last ditch effort, have you grabbed a multi-meter and begun poking around? Those high voltages could have easily burned the points or maybe even welded them together, and while I'm not an advocate of doing too much resetting the points it could narrow the field so far as troubleshooting goes. Just see how far through the regulator any voltage might go, see if there's an open circuit, that sort of thing, then while you're there do the same thing with the generator. I know well the feeling of enthusiasm I experience when going back into a screwy system, especially when I'm chasing electrons, but something is amiss that wasn't and there aren't that many places it could hide. You will probably end up replacing something but maybe not, and at least you'll know what you're looking for. Good luck! -Randy Quote
Don Coatney Posted August 2, 2009 Report Posted August 2, 2009 daddyo23,Polarize the regulator and call me in the morning. -Randy I am not sure how to polorize a regulator. But here is how to polorize a generator. Quote
randroid Posted August 2, 2009 Report Posted August 2, 2009 Don, It's largely a matter of semantics because they're polarized together. I got into the habit of calling it polarizing the regulator, but either way is correct. I think referring to polarizing the generator is in more common usage but it's not important enough to me to bother changing my verbiage. -Randy Quote
daddyo23 Posted August 3, 2009 Author Report Posted August 3, 2009 What does the generator do if the field wire between it and the voltage regulator is disconnected at the generator? If it continues to charge, I'd guess you have an internal short on the field and you will need to open up the generator to check it out.If it stops charging, then connect the field wire at the generator. I assume it will start charging like mad. Disconnect the field wire at the voltage regulator. If it is still charging then the wire from the generator to the regulator is grounding out and needs to be replaced. If it does not charge with the field wire disconnected at the regulator then you probably have a regulator problem. I did that test in the manual of running a jumper wire from the field terminal on the generator and the other end to the base of the regular. Charging off the charts. According to the book, replace regulator. I guess we'll have to try that. Quote
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