The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay charging problems

been battling with my charging system for over a month. getting very frustrating. had a new armeture put in the generator, new voltage regulator and now a new battery. all the connections have been cleaned up for good contact, and wires have been checked for frayed wires or shorts.

at first the system worked fine. rpm's would come up and the charging system would register a nice charge while i maintaned speed and then drop down once the engine rpm's dropped.

about a week later the amp meter just stopped moving unless i had something on (lights, fan, etc.). took the generator back to have it checked out again and the guy said it was fried. apparently something caused it to run like a motor rather than a generator, and as a result it got hot enough to melt the solder in the armeture.

had a new armeture put in, and everything seemed to be working again. until a couple of days ago when the amp meter started jumping around and then went to the "dead stick" behaviour again.

the battery was leaking so i got a new one and put on a new voltage regulator that i had on the shelf.

still nothing...

do i have the generator checked out again or am i missing something here that would solve all my problems????

any ideas???

p.j.,

Some brutal honesty...take the truck to a auto electric shop. The fellow that put the new armature in your generator should have been a little more helpful I think. Unless we don't know the full story, maybe someone else would do a better job.

I think the cutout relay in the voltage regulator is the 'switch' that prevents the system from driving the generator when you shut the truck off.

Did the battery have a broken case, or was it actually being overcharged. I looked at a previous post about your 'cooler', and wondered if there is such a terrific load on the system that it might have been overtaxed.

With all these things going on, I think it would be sensible to take it to the doctor..it might even be cheaper than misdiagnosing something and having to replace it twice..like the generator.

Stuart

I don't know about the new armatures that are being used in your generator, but, when I worked on Harley generators, I had a lot of problems with the aftermarket armatures. We always pushed for a heavier duty armature. And neither way was ever cheap.

had them take a look at the generator and it confirmed what i already thought had happened. it threw the solder just like the first one. the new battery is supposed to cure that problem (it had better).

ordered a new armature but i'm going to keep my eyes open for old armatures for the very reason you mention builder. i think the new ones are not made very well. had a similar problem you had with your harleys as i had with a moto guzzi. the new ones just aren't made as solid.

p.j.,

Just a little thought. The battery is dumb and the generator is dumb...the brains of the outfit is the voltage regulator. If it is giving the wrong 'poop' to the generator, I'm pretty sure you're going to need all the armatures you can find, and maybe more batteries.

The auto repair joint confirmed that the armature was no good..again. Who has confirmed why this is happening?

I visited your website. What incredible stuff!

Stuart

The problem is probably with the regulator. If a gen. is allowed to overcharge it will burn itself up. The voltage is easy to check with any voltmeter. It shouldn,t go over 14-14.5 volts. The amps. is harder to test without specialty equipment. Make shure your regulator is grounded. It,s a good idea to run a wire from the base of the reg. to the screw on the gen. if one is not already there. An alternator is better. It will not destrucked itself but will harm the battery & assesories if it overcharges which is rare.

Wrenchbender has Ford flatheads and 12 volt systems on his mind...your rig should probably top out at 7.5 or so!

Stuart

i thought 14volts sounded a little high

i understand the "dumb" issues. it seems the brain is where the problem is coming into the equation. that's why i decided to put the new one on even though the old one tested out fine. we had the generator and regulator hooked up together on the bench and everything worked, but that was also a bench test. field testing can be a whole 'nother story. once i have everything back together, i'm going to double check the amp output to make sure it falls within specified tolerances.

like i said before, it all seemed to work fine for a week or two and then something would go south. definitely ready to be done tinkering with this problem.

thanks for the complimant atomarc! i really do need to update some of the images. we've got tons of newer stuff to show off but can't seem to find the time (or take it). here's one of my latest illustrations i did for my brothers birthday present.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2203611090099732965PdTaOS

this was his highschool car that he wants to restore some day.

thanks for all the input guys. always great to hear everyone's opinions.

Was the generator "polorized" before being put in use?

yep

Is your field shorting to ground?

they do make 6 volt alternators. if i ain' stock convert it to 12 volts. makes those brake lights and headlights much easier to see!

kell, i don't think it's shorting but will double check all the wiring to make sure.

10, it is completely stock and i plan on keeping it that way so converting to 12volt is not an option.

the new armature was supposed to come in last thursday but when i called they said monday. yesterday i got to looking at the armature out of the parts donor generator i bought (had to buy the whole generator to get the mounting bracket). i didn't know if this old armature was any good but it looked like it was in pretty decent shape except the slot for the half moon key was a little mangled. reworked it, cleaned it up, polished the shaft end up and put it into the generator housing off of the truck.

hooked everything back up, polarized it and fired it up. everything seems to be working again. if it keeps working i'll just put the new armature on the shelf as a back-up. now wouldn't it be funny if this old one that i didn't think was any good, would work for the rest of my life.

did you recheck your wiring diagram? new regulators and new armatures and new batteries. if the gen is overcharging it would take some time to melt the solder or cook the battery. if the cutout relay was sticking it would fry the generator in short order. over loading the regulator could show up with stuck contacts. that would fry things also.