I’ve posted before that I thought my charging issue was resolved, but it appears it’s not.

Details…over the winter I took the generator out, cleaned up the stator and replaced the brushes. I reinstalled last week , and installed a new regulator and battery as well. I polarized by connecting a jumper wire to the bat terminal and touching the field terminal. I felt it was working because I was seeing over 6v, but today I checked again and my new battery was down to 5.6v and the engine cranked slowly. I put it on the charger and it was only showing 40% charge. Within the hour I was showing 6.3v.

The battery (current) gauge hardly moves at all, either way. It’s a NOS unit and I suspect it’s not working properly.

Tomorrow I’m going to hit the phone and see if I can find someone to look at the generator and regulator.

So my questions are…

1) is my polarizing procedure correct? If not, what is the correct procedure?
2) how can I tell what generator I have? I suspect that my engine is not original because of the EAB heads. It appears that ford used one generator from 39 until 48, then a different one from 48 to 53. If I can’t find a local shop I’ll be looking for a rebuilt unit so I need to get the right one.

Any input is welcome, trying my best to learn.

 

Was the communicator on the armature clean and shiny. There is a procedure in the manual for seating new brushes. Different engines may have had different size pulleys. I believe the 226 and 239 pulley size is different.

JB

 

I didn’t see that procedure in the manual, I’ll look again. The commutator was a mess, I cleaned it up with some emery cloth so it was nice and shiny when I reassembled it.

 

Hey Bob!
Hope you had a great Easter!

On your question 1. No sir, you do not want to simply use a piece of wire to jumper the Bat and Field connections on these voltage regulators. Some you can, but not these. Simply jumpering them could ruin your voltage regulator by excessive current burning the contacts inside the regulator and sometimes burning open the resistors inside of it too. The generators used on these old Fords are internally grounded. So in order to polarize them you'll need to remove the Field wire and the Battery wires from the voltage regulator and momentarily touch them together. You of course will see a spark and then you should be back in buisnesses as far as correct polarization goes.
Do have Hologen headlights? Did the charging problems start after adding those?
I can't help with question #2.
Thanks!

 

Thx, and I hope you had a good Easter. Unfortunately I came down with a bad cold and decided to avoid the extended family so I wouldn't spread it.

I haven't seen that polarizing procedure documented, but that makes sense. I was concerned about excess current, so I made sure that I was quick with the jumper. I'll open the regulator and check for burned contacts or resistors. I believe the resistors are all wire wound and should handle a brief high current, but they'll also be easy to check.

Yes, I have halogen headlights, and I don't know if I had a problem before because that was one of the first things I did on this truck. I don't believe it's an issue because it doesn't charge even with the headlights off.

 

I can’t locate a local shop to repair the generator. Is there anyone out there who works on these?

 

Are you close to a rural area? Generally there is someone who rebuilds/restores antique tractors and I bet either they could test/inspect your generator and regulator or can point you to someone that can. If that is a dead end, pick up a copy of Hemming's Motor News at your closest magazine stand. In the back they have a section where people advertise their services where you could send them your units. I bet you will find a place or two there. But before sending them off get from them an idea of what kind of turn around time you are looking at. Even though they probably do great work, you don't want your stuff gone all summer long LOL.
But before you go that far. Maybe a little more troubleshooting. After you polorize your generator again. (Remember to totally remove the Bat and Field connections from the regulator. Then touch them together) next lets try full fielding your generator. Connect back up your Battery connection to the regulator, but leave the field connection off still. With the Field disconnected from just the voltage regulator and a voltmeter connected between the Armature connection and ground you should see 0 voltage. (If not...that's a bad regulator). Start up the engine. Now using an alligator clip jumper temporarily connect the Field to the Battery terminal on your regulator. Now you should start seeing voltage building up on the Armature connector. Rev the engine to about 1500 RPM and eventually you should see over 7 volts. If you have that then I would say your Generator is good, but your regulator is suspect. If you get a new regulator they usually include a set of instructions that detail how to polarize the generator. By the way its just the generator you are polorizing, not the voltage regulator. Sometimes its even printed on the can or cover. I always like to just disconnect the Bat and Field wires to isolate the voltage regulator while polorizing (Ford recommends this in some of their shop manuals.) But then again some instructions simply call for only disconnecting the field wire and temporarily shorting it on to the connected Bat terminal. Whatever your voltage regulator instructions tell you to do, I would do it that way.
Let's say now you have verified the generator is working correctly and you hook back up your Field connection to the voltage regulator. All good yet? If not we know your voltage regulator is bad. But what if now, it appears that you do have charging. You can measure say 7 or more volts at your battery with about 1500 RPM. What I would check for next is a bad, high resistance connection some where in the run of wiring between the Battery terminal of your voltage regulator and your battery voltage connection on your starter solenoid. Could the connection be so bad, that while charging current is flowing to the battery, heat is being generated and the bad connection is turning into a high resistance? I am thinking that could be a good possibility. You might want to meaure for a voltage drop between the battery connection on your solenoid relay and the battery connection on your voltage regulator. Then take a long drive, and then come back and measure it again and compare. If it looks like you do have voltage drop issues look for a blakened, dis-colored connector. And especially look at any butt splices that may have been used. Folks have a hard time crimping those properly. I have found some of my own bad work!
Sorry about all of the stuff above. Its just what I would look at and try. Just me maybe.
I hope this helps. I would like to see you fix it because these problems we all learn from.

 

Bob, I had charging problems with my truck just before Truckstock last year. I went through 5 voltage regulators before Maine Tom sent me a link showing how to adjust a voltage regulator
Ed

 

Thx hooler for all the detailed info. I need to send my carb out for rebuilding this week so I might not get to these tests for a few weeks, but before I buy anything else, I’m going to do the things you suggest, as well as seating the brushes as per the maintenance manual. I’m fairly confident that the armature and field coils are ok based on continuity tests.

Ed, yes I remember watching that video and I ran through those procedures last fall. I wasn’t able to get things working correctly so I tore the generator down and focused on that. When I torn the generator down it was a mess, brushes worn, carbon dust everywhere, stator covered in crap. Now that spring is here I can refocus my efforts on the generator and regulator.

As always, thx everyone who took the time to read and respond. As Abe always says, this is the best forum on the web.

 

Has the armature been tested with a "growler"? Pg 252 of the manual.

 

No, I don’t have any of the test gear listed in the manual, and I haven’t located anyone who works on these old generators.

 

Bob, do you want the name of the guy that rebuilds my generators and starters? Being in rural PA he is good and inexpensive. Shipping both ways might be a deal breaker. Unless you can fit it in a "if it fits it ships box."

 

If you go to Carlisle this week and take your generator and regulator with you I am sure there will be someone there that works on them

 

That might be a good option if none of the suggestions above work out.

 

Thx, but I can’t make it this week.