Hi all,
I am having electrical problems with my '46 supersix and I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.
What happened:
While driving on the freeway last weekend the GEN light on the dashboard turned on. Then the lights got a little dim and I knew I was running on battery charge alone. While at idle and then increasing RPM there was no change in how bright the lights were. I also have a battery disconnect switch, and before if I disconnected the battery the car would continue running on the generator. Now it would turn off as soon as the battery was disconnected.
What I have done to fix it (but no luck):
1 - I have a spare engine with a generator so I swapped generators. Then the GEN light was turning on and off. Every time it flickered on/off I could hear a ticking noise that was coming from the regulator
2 - I have an old spare regulator so I replaced it. Now the GEN light is always on but when I accelerate it gets brighter, but never goes off.
Could something else be wrong that I haven't considered?
Thank you,
Jairo.
Moved to the "Hudson" category. (The "Club and Forum - Suggestions & Comments" category is for ideas on improving the Club and Forum).
You apparently have a charging system problem - which any auto electric shop can diagnose in minutes, if it takes that long.
If you had Lucas components, you would be able to tell which is bad by the smoke having gone out of the bad component. Don't know if this worls for AutoLite components.el
Connect a voltmeter to the generator's "A" terminal (that's the larger one) Start the engine and see what the voltage does. If everything's OK, when you increase the rpm, the voltage should come up to about 7 volts. If that happens OK, turn the headlights on and see if the voltage stays near 7. If it does, everythings OK. If not, try the same test but with a jumper wire to connect the generator's field ("F") terminal to ground. Start the engine and see what happens to the generator voltage. As you increase rpm it should rise to 7 volts or more. Be careful not to run it beyond 7 ot 8 volts. If all's well, the problem is in the regulator or in the wiring. If you can only get 2 or 3 volts with the field grounded, it's the generator.
The problem is now fixed. Thank you!
I was getting ready to test the procedure above but before I did a couple of things based on google searches.
- I tried to turn both generators by connecting them to the battery and the old one didn't turn but the new one already installed did turn.
- Then I did the procedure to polarize the new generator.
- Then I did the test described above.
Everything seemed ok and the ticking/clicking noises and flashing GEN light have gone away and somehow fixed itself. I wonder if the polarizing procedure fixed it.
Before I installed the new generator I oiled the front and back and turned it by hand. Could it be I turned it in the wrong direction and changed the polarity?
Either way things are good and the car is driving and charging fine.
Thank you all,
Jairo.
Jairo, I'm glad you got the problem fixed. The polarity issue may have been what affected the substitute generator, but it definitely wouldn't have been the cause of your original generator's failure to charge. My guess is there's an internal problem with that generator.
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