Went to take an enjoyable cruise and in my preflight inspection I noticed the 49 3100 was heavily dischargeing @ idle and wouldn't charge at high rpm.
So I started troubleshooting and didn't get to take my enjoyable ride.
I soon was able to trace the problem to the generator. With the field grounded I was getting 0 volts out of the Arm terminal. I disconnected the wireing, same same.
Pulled the 6v gen and found the brushes were worn to nearly knubs and one was somehow jacked to where it wouldn't make contact w/the commutator.
So I clean up the commutator, brushes, holders, test the fields etc., put it back together, ground the field term, hook a VOM to the Arm term and my bench test shows it producing up to 14 volts when spun rapidly w/an air wrench.
I'll be picking up a new set of brushes from a FLAPS this afternoon. So I should be back in operation tonight.
Question, now that I'm into the chargeing system, what is the lowdown & dirtiest, cheapest, 12 volt alternator conversion that anyone has done?
Are their kits or does one need to assemble the parts?
I know I'll have to swap out all my lamps, add an ign resistor and also a voltage reducer for the gauges/fuel sender.
Just curious to see how others faired w/their upgrades.
Dave
