The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay How do I make my armature Growl at me?

How do I make my armature Growl at me?
I posted this over on the VCCA site but since I joined last winter I’ve been unable to get much information at all out of that group. So I thought I’d try the Bolt, you guys have always come through in one way or another. I see some of you over there but a lot of you have had the same experience with VCCA as I have and don’t bother with them anymore.

I'm going to rebuild my 6v starter and generator on my 216 plus a couple of extras that I have on the shelf this winter. I have an old growler that I picked up sometime in the past with no documentation and was wondering if anyone has any sort of instruction for the proper use of them and just exactly what it can tell me?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Lessee, it has been 20+ yrs, but I will see what I can recall. You place the armature on the growler, turn it on & slowly rotate the armature while holding a hacksaw blade against the armature in the winding area, moving back & forth to check all the windings. The blade will sorta growl & bounce around. if it "sticks" magnetically somewhere you have a bad armature winidng

Denny Graham,

I know you are one for exact, documented facts, so my vague recollections might not be worth a hoot, but here goes anyway!

Many moons ago, as the head flunky in charge of nuttin, my job was to check armatures on a growler. As I recall, I would put the naked armature into the big 'V' cradle, turn the machine on, and using a old hacksaw blade, would lightly pass the blade over the armature (not commutator).

You had to rotate the armature several times to check it full circumference. If the armature WAS shorted, the hacksaw blade would be magnetically attracted to the shorted bar, or area.

It seems like there was always a small amount of magnetic attraction, but when shorted, it became very obvious.

This is how I remember it!

Stuart

Thanks guys, that gets me one step closer. When I was a young lad back in the 50s my dad was a mechanic and I can remember him rebuilding generators. He had a South Bend lathe to turn the comutators and he showed me how to check the armatures on a growler, but being a know it all kid I didn't pay attention. For years after that when I was a teen, I worked in a variety of auto parts stores including Chevy dealerships and I and they simply used rebuilts.
I'd still like to see a documentation sheet if anyone has one.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

denny I have the delco service procedures I could fax to you if you are interested

Yes 99, I'd like that very much. I'm keeping a rather extensive file on the restoration and welcome any information I can add to the file.
Generator is Delco-Remy No.72U code 11-F2
and
Starters (2) are Delco-Remy Model 1107055 Serial 0J20 & 8G7

The email is in my profile.
And thanks a bunch.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

So,,,I heard once that this is a way to check if a generator is good,or not.
If you can make a motor out of it,I.E.: connect a pos. battery cable to the "arm" term on the generator,and ground the case,if it spins like a motor,,its supposedly good?
Kinda sounds right to me,,,but..........I'm sure theres more to it than that. Or no?

As usual I’ve had a chance to so some research and came up with all kinds of info. I know there’s a lot of guys here that are interested in working on their own trucks but are new to Mechanicsville. Here are a few sites that have some pretty neat stuff pertaining to this subject.
http://www.4king.com/01_english/growler.htm
http://www.associatedequip.com/associated/pdf/manuals/6054.pdf
http://www.tpub.com/content/construction/14273/css/14273_31.htm

At the www.tpub site just change the (_31) in the address to the next or previous number to scroll through the book.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL