The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Generator not charging

I am in my third week of owning a 56 3200 truck. This is my first post. After checking and finding no charge, I replaced the battery and installed new voltage reg. Still no charging. My mechanic did polarized the generator and we also checked that it motored. I removed the generator and took it to a shop. He said it was working fine and advised we check wires. We have continuity and also checked grounding of the voltage reg. Any Ideas or help here would be appreciated. Tom Duffy

You might want to move this topic to the electrical forum.I'm sure you will have some help shortly.

I would say to check the wiring from one point its conected to another for breaks in it.Check grounds .Double check wires are connected to the proper connections.If all that is correct removed the generator and voltage regulator .Take them both to a good Gen shop to check that they both are working.I just had a new gen and reg ,problem turned out that the new reg was bad .

Good luck

If all is good like Web say's, take a jumper wire & ground the field term. at the regulator. Start the engine. If the gen is good it should charge way over this way. If so you have a defective regulator. Make sure you have full bat voltage at the reg. Bat. term. It should be hot all the time.

Do like Wrenchbender describes but if it doesn't charge, check continuity of the field wire before buying a new regulator. I didn't and it turned out to be an internal break in the wire.

To carry on with this method, next try grounding the field at the generator. Take a voltage reading at the armature on the generator.

Tyanks for the advice. I am thinking of replacing the wiring harness(all). I had the generator checked. It checked ok but had it serviced since it was out. New bearings and detailed - looks great. Was retested and ok. When I reinstalled it, I noticed the belt was not alligned. It appears 3/8" set back from the fan & crank pulleys. Is there any adjustment in the mount bracket? Can I drill new holes and move it 3/8" forward?

I have sold several generators off 216/235's that have slotted holes in the bottom block mount bracket(non-factory) to probably solve this misalignment. Must have been a quick shade tree fix back in the day.

Took the mounting bracket off. Noticed the part # is not correct. Decided to use the elongated hole system. Drilled new holes and slotted the bracket. Got almost 1/2 " adjustment. Cleaned painted and now looks good. pictures are at http://picasaweb.google.com/Hayleebird