It's been cold here - 0F and below - but keep the 64 garaged and battery topped off. Still, it's parked outside all day at work and lately have an "intermittent" generator light till it warms up, or seems to - what's up with that, is it the cold weather or? Last had it serviced maybe 10k miles ago?

 

Most likely it is cold enough for the windings to shrink just a tad to keep them from producing an electrical field. Once the truck warms up the exhaust manifold or radiator is most likely giving off enough heat to expand them. This is also a theory mind you.

 

Sounds like it's time for some new brushes. Mine used to act like that, I'd put new brushes in it once a year til I switched over to an internally regulated GM alt.

 

Well, I sprang for one of those fancy voltage regulators with the FoMoCo script a while back, had the generator gone over on gen. principles. It does seem to cut out - normally the lights will dim slightly at low idle, the heater blower slow around corners - the light is showing a true non-charge condition. I'm gonna give it a shot of some electrical contact cleaner just for the hell of it, and check grounds and such.

 

You do know that generators don't produce electricity under 12-1500 rpm? That explains the dimming of lights and drop in speed of the blower motor when at low idle and turning corners............ May be nothing wrong with your gen. Under those conditions it will show a discharge condition or the idiot light will come on. I run one on my daily 48 F1.

 

I had the same problem with my generator and finally decided to have it converted over to a GM internally regulated alternator. It's much easier to replace if it quits and the output is excellent.

 

You bet, but the light shouldn't illuminate at all speeds - and I dont' get any dimming lights when the light is illuminated, probably because the battery is providing all power at that point - I think the Gen light is indicating a proper fault, but I didn't know it could be intermittent, I thought generators just sort of died and stayed dead.

 

Okay, I have a nice shiny genuine, new re-built generator, and the original here.

The pulley looks like it has seen better days - anybody got a part # for that thing, or better a modern part # that will fit? Just getting the old one off looks like a project, corroded, reefed to golly-knows how many yard-pounds, topped off with a coat of paint.

 

Pulley is pressed on...parts house can remove it.

B2TZ-10130-A Generator Pulley (fits 1952-1964 most everything F1/F100)

 

Hey ND, thanks for the help. It's gonna need some pro-fessional application sounds like.

It's easy to see why the alternator replaced the generator. The windings (heavy) are the part that revolves! "Somebody" dropped the generator at one time, the pulley really needs to be replaced, but at this point just getting my rig back on the road will be good enough.

 

I thought of something this morning. Have you cleaned the contacts on the firewall connectors? My truck which has an altenator, wasn't charging for anything a few years back. I replaced everything then I cleaned the connectors where it passes through the firewall and it worked again. It may not be the source of the problem but it will eliminate any doubts.

 

Good tip on cleaning the firewall connectors - I hit all of 'em a while back, and about once a year. The first time, about a tablespoon of dry, powdered corrosion spewed out, it pays to clean 'em up!

Well I got the old pulley removed and on the new generator, since it is basically unobtanium from the reg'ler parts jobbers. A neighbor has an impact wrench and a slide hammer puller, which did the trick. So it's out to the garage on a nice spring day (finally)

thanks for the help folks, free beers on me.

 

Well MOC OK, she runs good!!!!