The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Battery not charging on 1946 pickup

the ameter indicates that the battery is not being charged while driving. the generator is working. new voltage regulator installed. nothing changed. manually shorted cutout relay and the ameter indicated charging. when the truck was turned off and on again, the ameter indicated no charging. any ideas?

falconnm,

If all your statements are accurate, it means your voltage regulator is bad. You said you manually pushed the cutout relay closed and saw the ammeter jump to charge. If this is true then your generator is functioning.

The cutout relay can be adjusted for voltage, but if it doesn't come in at all, my little Echlin book says replace it.

Before I did that I would make sure the fan belt was tight, the FIELD and ARM wires were all clean, tight and in good condition.

If you have a meter, you can pull the field wire from the generator and attach a small good jumper to ground momentarily. If you have a meter on the ARM terminal, you should see the voltage jump as you rev the engine. This will prove your generator.

Although I'm certainly not a automotive electrical guy, it seems like the relay should close as soon as generator exceeds battery voltage. This is usually around 6.5 volts. Your battery is a 6 volt item isn't it?.

Maybe someone else with more knowledge will be along soon.

Stuart

Is it discharging while you drive?? maybe the battery it up to snuff and every thing is just fine. If the battery is fully charged your not going to see a large deflection of the ammeter. How ever while your driving and you pull the lights heater and radio on and it shows a large discharge then you have a problem.
The ammeter is only showing you what the condition of the battery is in at any given moment.
Denny G

Is the voltage at the armature terminal going up as you increase RPM's? At about 6.5 to 7 volts, the cutout relay should close. The closing voltage is adjusted by changing the spring tension on the cutout relay points. I like to use a variable resistor on the field terminal lead to slowly increase the voltage while I'm adjusting closing voltage. It's much more precise than trying to do it with idle speed. Disconnect the field lead at the regulator, and insert the resistor in series with the field lead and ground. as you decrease resistance, the armature voltage will rise. A resistance-type heater blower speed control works pretty well as a variable field resistor.
Jerry