Itinerant Air-Cooled

No spark, no short. Bad ground. Always attach the voltage regulator with both screws as apparently that is how it's grounded. Light is out. Whew.



neal

Ain't 'lectricity fun?

Made my head hurt.


neal

Neal, 12.3vDC at the battery with the engine running and the gen light still on usually means the alternator/generator is not charging or is not wired to the battery correctly. The pulsing gen light with turn signals or slow wipers is letting you see the demand for lights/wipers and the voltage drop at the battery - recheck all wiring between alternator/generator, starter and voltage regulator to make sure everything is connected and connected correctly.

Did you make a detailed drawing of the wiring before you pulled the starter recently?

Checked, rechecked, proper wiring, all good. The generator light went out after I pulled the voltage regulator off and cleaned the mounting surfaces, and scared up a second screw to properly attach it. Now I have 13.75 volts at the battery with the engine running.

I think I got it.



neal

Well maybe not. Now my generator light stays on after starting for random bits of time before shutting off. One block, 1/4 mile, half a block, one mile. Sticky VR? Can you take those apart and like lube them or such?


neal

ruckman101 wrote:Well maybe not. Now my generator light stays on after starting for random bits of time before shutting off. One block, 1/4 mile, half a block, one mile. Sticky VR? Can you take those apart and like lube them or such?


neal

Have you Muir-Sanded the commutator? Somewhere in the depths of your car, there is electricity fighting to complete a path . . . . . . . .
Colin

Ahhh, commutator, uhm, that would be the shiny brass bits on the generator that the newly installed brushes want to ride and make contact with?

No, have not Muir-sanded that bit. I like my fingers. However that does make the most sense, the brushes new aren't worn to the curve of optimum contact.

And running out to the lot and giving both brushes a push, there was certainly a ton of graphite dust in the area. Maybe even just a good blast of air.


neal

ruckman101 wrote:I like my fingers.

You can dislike popsicle sticks.
In fact, you can enjoy a second refreshing orange popsicle while fixing the car.

So I hit the commutator/brush area with canned air. Woof, what a cloud of graphite dust.


neal

Ok, so Hambone came over this morning, and it's a good thing. I was going straight to the tangle of wires at the fuse box to look for a short. Hambone checked the generator output. One volt.

The ground wire at the top of the generator was loose, tightened that, and then checked the brushes. The top one was kind of twisted about and looked very very close to the generator body, maybe shorting? Anyway, adjusted that so it was well away from the generator body and we had success. Flashers flashed, turn signals blinked, and no fuses were blown. A second set of eyes never hurts.

Cheryle is taking Bertha for a test run, but I think Bertha is now in the moving business.


neal

Awesome possum.
Neatness counts in wiring. (Just don't look under my dash.)