The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Charging Problem

Rewired the truck just before christmas. Since then I have had a drain on the battery. My horn would work with the fuse pulled out. I took out my horn relay and I now do not have a clicking from the regulator or a spark at the battery when I connect or disconnect the neg. cable. So I think I found my drain.

Now my system isn't charging. The Ammeter just sits there in the middle. I'm around 11.5 volts. I used my meter and connected to the generator to check the output. Out put at idle was 11-12 volt. Increasing the rpms would raise it to 13 then drop to 5. This doesn't seem right to me, it should keep going up correct? I have tried to ground the field terminal so it would go full charge and I am not seeing a difference. So body please help, I am getting flustered.

P.s.. I have tried polarizing the generator.

Hi

I read somewhere that you can increase the output of the regulator box by fiddling with the contacts. Maybe look into this further. Try replacing the generator brushes and cleaning the commutator. I usually keep a piece of fine sanding paper running against the commutator to clean it and then open up the grooves with a toothpick! The generators does drop when idling but I think you should at least see 13v when running. I replaced mine with a alternator.

I appreciate the advice 61lorrie but I already took it to my repair guy yesterday. Kinda impatient I know, but this is my daily driver. I'll get it back tomarrow and hear what he says is wrong with it. Thanks again!

I would suggest that adjusting the points is a bad idea. You should not hear any clicking from the regulator when connecting the battery and the engine is not running.

With the engine running and the armature lead disconnected, momentarily grounding the field at the generator should cause the armature terminal voltage to soar. I wouldn't do this for long. If that works, try it with the armature connected. If you see that same high voltage at the regulator terminal, the regulator isn't closing in.

apachiefiend,
Where are you located in Dallas? Im in Midlothian and may be able to help you.

Ken

I went ahead and took the Generator and Regulator to my repair man. My reg. was bad and the Gen. had some problems. Turned out he had an old Delco Reg. that he sold to me, so I have an awesome NOS regulator that is working just fine now! I'm enjoying watching the(to coin another bolters phrase) needle dance. Also found the drain on my battery. Turned out I had the Horn relay wired up wrong. I had a hard time figuring the places to wire to going of the diagram in the shop manuel. So the clicking I heard was coming from it, not the old reg., every time I connected the batt. Why didn't the horn blow you ask? Because I already had a horn relay in my new wiring harness. No body told me this and I never saw it in the manuel. So having to relays kept it from working. Thank you guys for all the help!