fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Gents, I just had my generator rebuilt by a shop because of several issues inside the casing including the armeture throwing soder on the casing walls. The shop rebuilt the generator completely including a new armeture. They tested my volatage regulator when the generator was rebuilt and it was no good also. They tested both of the new parts and they worked great at their shop. I picked up the newly built equipment and installed them last night carefully making sure all connections were solid including heat shrinking the wiring. It took a couple tries to start her up but once it started she ran good. I shut her off and went inside the house thinking about why my dash lights still were not working kind of excited to move on. I came back out and shut the fan off in the garage and heard a (humming- buzzing) small noise, coming from the generator or voltage reg. I put my ear up to both and it seemed to be coming from the volt. reg. I tapped my hand on the volt. reg. and it disapeared. I tapped it again with my hand and it came back. WHAT THE HECK!!! Brand new 6 volt voltage reg. and rebuilt gen, new battery and new terminals. Any one know what this could be or has had this happen before? Thanks for the help 1948 p-15 Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Suggest you contact the shop that did the repairs. Quote
fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Posted April 3, 2013 Update: I called the shop and they asked if i polerized the generator. I did not know i needed to so lesson learned. I will take the voltage reg. back and get a new one and polerize the gen. this time. Thanks don Quote
_shel_ny Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Did the system indicate proper charging/any charging after you installed the parts? 6v? 12v? Positive ground on the 6v? EDIT: re read. I see you are 6V Edited April 3, 2013 by shel_bizzy_48 Quote
TodFitch Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 How could they have tested their work if they hadn't polarized the generator? Only explanation I can think of is their test equipment requires and negative ground generator but that seems unlikely. . . Quote
fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Posted April 3, 2013 Gents, I should have told you that i am running a 6 volt negative ground system. I bought the car and it was already running that way. I asked the shop if i should put it back to positve ground for a 6 volt system before they rebuilt it so the generator could be polerized that way and they said "why", if its running good dont mess with it. I have a 6 volt negative ground voltage regulator which they ordered and i paid for. When i started having the issues with the generator not charging the system and putting higher RPM's to it, thats when i noticed that the negative cable was bolted to the block of the flathead 6. I have been going with what the professionals at the shop told me to do, but now i am really confused. The battery is showing with the car lights on around 6.24 and with the lights off it is showing 7.24 on the meter. The buzzing noise probably ran for 15 minutes before i caught it, "Luckly", so the generator and volt. reg. were kind of warm to the touch. Quote
Dodgeb4ya Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 I would think to keep the confusion levels low for you and future owners of your car it should have been kept stock 6V positive ground. The generator is not capable of handling the heavier headlight load. With the headlights on and revs at 1500RPM it should still be around 7 volts. You are getting no charge out of this repair job! Bob Quote
greg g Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Most 6 V systems are positive ground because that is the way electricity naturally flows. 6V depends on current flow so why fight what is natural. To put it back to positive ground is a matter of very little effort. Why not do what Poppa Chrysler intended? AS for your dash lights, there is a toggle switch to the right of the steering wheel where the bottom edge of the dash board curve under. Some times it is a two position and some time 3 position but it controls the dash lights. either on off or on/dim or dimmer. Quote
fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Posted April 3, 2013 Unfortunatly i have paid a little over $400 to get the generator rebuilt along with a new volt. reg. I may go ahead and switch it over to a positve ground system soon. I dont want to keep shelling out money to this shop though. I will polerize the unit myself when it comes time. Greg, i saw the toggle switch you were talking about next to the steering wheel and i flipped it a couple of times and nothing while the car was running. I believe it is a 2 position. I am going to check all of the bulbs and wiring soon. Thanks for all of your input everyone! Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Most auto electric shops today do not have knowledge of, nor understand 6 volt positive ground (generator - regulator) systems. They are used to working on 12 volt alternator negative ground systems. You should listen to the old guys on this froum as many of us grew up around these 6 volt systems. That is just the opinion of this old guy who has converted to 12 volts negative ground with a alternator. Quote
fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Posted April 3, 2013 I am still really new to working on any classic and thats why i am a memeber to this forum to get the input i need from the guys who have been working on them since i was born. I tried everything i could from home to check out the parts,read p-15 threads and they were bad. I have never rebuilt a generator before and dont have the money to throw into it and mess it up myself. At least there work has a warrenty to help me out a bit. I have received so much help from everyone on this forum and are glad to be apart of it. Sometimes you have to let someone that knows how to work on it fix your parts. In my case it probabaly would have been cheaper to fix it myself now. Expensive learning curves! Should have just went to a 12 volt system and spent half of that dough!!! Thanks again for all of your help Quote
Scruffy49 Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 The way I was taught is that anytime the battery is unhooked, you need to polarize the generator. Has worked w/o a hitch so far, the generator on my 49 outlasted the engine. Quote
fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Posted April 3, 2013 The way I was taught is that anytime the battery is unhooked, you need to polarize the generator. Has worked w/o a hitch so far, the generator on my 49 outlasted the engine. Thanks Scruffy, i will do that from now on! Quote
_shel_ny Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Not trying to step on anybodys toes here, but I do not think that it is necessary to polarize the generator every time the battery is disconnected. Required when changing polarity. + ground, - ground May be required with extended non use. I don't know how long extended is Opinions will vary on that, as well as the need to do it at all. If you hook it up, and it's charging in the right direction, polarzing is not needed. Could voltage regulator adjustment have caused the buzzing??? points cycling rapidly? can this happen when the vehicle is not running? Edited April 3, 2013 by shel_bizzy_48 1 Quote
fourleaf Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Posted April 3, 2013 Not trying to step on anybodys toes here, but I do not think that it is necessary to polarize the generator every time the battery is disconnected. Required when changing polarity. + ground, - ground May be required with extended non use. I don't know how long extended is Opinions will vary on that, as well as the need to do it at all. If you hook it up, and it's charging in the right direction, polarzing is not needed. Could voltage regulator adjustment have caused the buzzing??? points cycling rapidly? can this happen when the vehicle is not running? The car was not running when the buzzing was going on. The generator and voltage reg. casing were pretty warm even when the car was off. Quote
Young Ed Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Not trying to step on anybodys toes here, but I do not think that it is necessary to polarize the generator every time the battery is disconnected. Required when changing polarity. + ground, - ground May be required with extended non use. I don't know how long extended is Opinions will vary on that, as well as the need to do it at all. If you hook it up, and it's charging in the right direction, polarzing is not needed. Could voltage regulator adjustment have caused the buzzing??? points cycling rapidly? can this happen when the vehicle is not running? Yesterday I picked up my 6v +ground 46 1/2 ton and 48p15 from winter storage. They had both been sitting since late oct early nov with the batteries unhooked. Reconnected the batteries and both started up just fine. So extended non use must be longer than 5months. Quote
TodFitch Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Yesterday I picked up my 6v +ground 46 1/2 ton and 48p15 from winter storage. They had both been sitting since late oct early nov with the batteries unhooked. Reconnected the batteries and both started up just fine. So extended non use must be longer than 5months. Extended non-use, in my experience, is at leat many decades. Quote
Don Coatney Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 Makes me wonder that if the earths polarity should change (as in the north pole suddenly becomes the south pole) would all generators require polorization? I always get in trouble when I wonder too much. Quote
_shel_ny Posted April 3, 2013 Report Posted April 3, 2013 The car was not running when the buzzing was going on. The generator and voltage reg. casing were pretty warm even when the car was off. Just tossed my ? ? ? out there in case someone had helpful input Quote
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