The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Should my generator be charging only this much???

Ok, I figured out the other day that my generator IS working, but it only puts out enough when the regulator lets it, to move the amp needle a bit. Let's say that the needle, with the lights on, is on the far left leg of the "m" in amps, closer to "D." When I rev up the engine, it moves to about the middle leg of the "m." With only the light switch pulled out to the first notch, it barely moves the needle from the center mark(where the needle is when the key is off) but when I rev up the engine it moves it a little past the mark towards "C." Is that as far as it should go, or should it be going farther towards "C"?

you really have to have modern test equipment hooked up to know what's going on in these reg/gen systems, they will all act slightly different, especially with respect to what the gauge shows and what the regulator does

the regulators have adjustments to set the 'cut in' and 'cut out' points, and the regulator controls how much of the generator output goes where, depending on the condition of the battery and the demands of the system at that moment

one of the differences between generator and alternator systems is generator output depends on speed - alternators can have higher [or max] output at low speed ... read all about it

Bill

Sounds like you are working correctly. When the bat. is full charged there is little or no flow to it. Turn the lights on with out the engine running for a minute or 2. Then start the engine & rev it a little. It should go over into the C area for a while & then taper back to the middle. Turn on the lights & heater & accel the engine The gauge should go up to the middle at least. You can tell more with a volt meter across the bat. It should charge about 7 volts on a 6 volt system & 14 on a 12 volt system. Like Red says a gen. system doesn't charge at idle.

jdl,

It sounds like you might have a broken connection under the dashboard. Take a flashlight and inspect the floor directly underneath the light switch. If you find a little pile of amps, they might have fallen out of a wire. If you repair the wire, the amps will stay inside and flow through the wire to the battery.

Stuart

OK Stuart, I will check. Thanks guys, I thought that was correct but I didn't know what to check to make sure.

Oh, Bill, I have a multimeter, I'll see what it reads.