Not Charging - what's up?

Here's the latest: battery ground cable looks fine - no rust/corrosion and is bolted to the cross-member behind the battery. Took loose the light/horn wire from the cutout, cranked up the car and that made no difference on the ammeter's reading. When not running the voltage still reads 6.3 at battery cable; 6.3 both side of the fuse; 6.3 both sides of the cutout; and 6.3 across the cutout terminals. So if there is a short in the light wiring that causes the fuse to blow on high beam, it must be a separate problem from the charging matter - since the light wire is disconnected from the cutout. Next?
 
Run the engine at fast idle and measure the voltage on each side of the cutout.

Measure each terminal to ground and let us know each voltage.
 
Okay...at fast idle, terminal to ground on each side = @18.9V - that's on the 20V scale, or 1.89 on the 2V scale. I say that because I'm not a wizard on the VM but i used the 20V scale for everything else. By the way, I really do appreciate all the help you guys are giving me.
 
I have not followed this tread and I'm heading out the door. Take a wire directly from B- and touch the generator term. You don't want a neg ground generator as it will be in series with your pos grd system (just in case it is). Now take that wire right from the battery neg directly to the cut-out's output side. Do leave the lights out of the circuit for now as Tom suggest.
Retake your voltage readings with the wire directly on the battery. Closer to 7v now?
It seems like a lot of work but it will verify your meter and the generator.
From there should be simple...Gotta go, headin to see my old man at the hospital.
 
Have you removed the terminal box cover and made sure the nuts and terminals inside are clean and tight? With 18 volts on each side of the cutout, you know the generator is working. With that high of a voltage you also know the output isn't connected to the battery. Now it looks like the wire from the cutout to the terminal box is bad, or the connections are bad.

This still isn't making a lot of sense though because if the engine is off and you turned on the lights, then the ammeter showed the correct discharge, that should mean everything from the battery to the cutout is good, because the lights connect at the cutout output side.

Along with what Mike said, take a jumper wire and connect between the generator output stud and starter switch stud, then take a voltage reading at the generator stud. If you get just over battery voltage, then keep moving the jumper wire from the generator to the cutout output side, then to each terminal box stud. keep reading the voltage at the jumper wire as you move it along.
 
Okay...the light wire is off the cutout...engine off....electric toggle is on (someone added that under the dash). 6.3v at battery cable/starter stud. Using the jumper wire fm starter stud: to gen stud - 5.12v. move to cutout output - 6.29v. move to right term box stud - 6.3v. move to left term box stud - 6.3v. Also checked across the cutout terms (without jumper) 6.3v. I may not be accomplishing a lot so far but I am learning a whole bunch. Thanks again. Now what?
 
Have you run the engine at fast idle with a jumper across the two cutout terminals, and measured the voltage at the starter switch?

From the last post it sounds like you have a bad cutout.
 
Okay, Tom.....just made that check. With the jumper across the cutout terminals, voltage at the battery cable/starter is @18.3v. And there is no change in the ammeter - still doesn't go above center or neutral.
 
This sure isn't adding up.
Jump a wire from the output side of the cutout to the starter switch and measure the voltage at the starter switch.
 
With the jumper from the starter stud to the output side of the cutout, I get 6.37v at both ends of the wire. As for the toggle switch, I was told it was to prevent someone from starting your car and whether it's on or off, the 2 voltages I mentioned above don't change. And even if it is 'off' the instrument light will still come on. I don't see it anywhere under the hood and from the toggle it appears to go into the channel that feeds wires up the instrument panel. I know the car won't start if the toggle is "on' so, without pulling the instrument panel, I suspect it is wired to control the pop-out ignition switch.
 
Walt Ebie said:
With the jumper from the starter stud to the output side of the cutout, I get 6.37v at both ends of the wire. As for the toggle switch, I was told it was to prevent someone from starting your car and whether it's on or off, the 2 voltages I mentioned above don't change. And even if it is 'off' the instrument light will still come on. I don't see it anywhere under the hood and from the toggle it appears to go into the channel that feeds wires up the instrument panel. I know the car won't start if the toggle is "on' so, without pulling the instrument panel, I suspect it is wired to control the pop-out ignition switch.
Click to expand...

Was this with the engine running??

Bob
 
With jumper from starter stud to c/o output, engine running, v at starter = 18.9, ammeter shows discharge @ 5-6. At the same time, voltage at both terminal posts is also 18.9. Since the light harness is disconnected, I couldn't pop on the lights to check for discharge but I did turn on the dash light and the dome light and there was no noticeable discharge on the ammeter. But since they are very small bulbs that may not matter. After this I took off the jumper and checked again, with engine off: gen out = 0; c/o out 6.3v; both terminal posts 6.3v.
 
I sure wish I was there, because this just isn't making sense. You must have a disconnect between the starter switch and battery because you have high voltage at the starter, but not at the battery.

Bur if you have a bad connection at the battery cable or post, how can it crank over just fine? Can you post a picture of the starter switch and wires on it? Do you have any fuses or a battery disconnect switche?
 
Amen to the patience part...... and I wish you were closer, too...but meanwhile here's the picture and a question: part of the confusion is probably mine - you mention the starter switch and the battery. I've been testing at the bolt where the battery is fastened to the starter thinking that is the nearest contact to the switch. If so, then that's my mistake so please tell me what I should be checking. Anyway, thanks again, and here's the pic.
 

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