generator not charging

R

rusted

Member
I took my gen. to a repair shop to have a new front bearing put in. They stated the gen. was in good condition and only had to put in one brush and the bearing. When I put it back on the car, it will not show a charge on the amp gauge no matter if I move the third brush all the way down. Do I need to polorize this or should I take it back and see if they can figure this out? Just how do you polorize the system? Thanks for the help!!
 
Try polarizing the generator by shorting the input and output of the cutout together for 1 second.
 
I believe you polarize by unhooking the live wire from the cutout and touching it directly to the generator output post.

Also be sure your generator is grounded to the engine and that your cutout is grounded to the generator. To see if the cutout is bad, set the car to a fast idle and bypass the cutout with a jumper wire. I also test cutouts with a 12V battery charger. If you hook one lead to the input post and one lead to the base (ground) you can usually hear the points click together.

You can also bench test the generator with the charger. When hooked to power, it should turn like a motor.
 
Remove the band and make sure the shop didn't mix up the two wires for the output and adjustable brushes. The FIELD wire must go to the ADJUSTABLE brush, and the output wire must go to the fixed brush. I've seen a few shops mix them up and it will fry the generator.
 
rusted said:
I took my gen. to a repair shop to have a new front bearing put in. They stated the gen. was in good condition and only had to put in one brush and the bearing. When I put it back on the car, it will not show a charge on the amp gauge no matter if I move the third brush all the way down. Do I need to polorize this or should I take it back and see if they can figure this out? Just how do you polorize the system? Thanks for the help!!
Click to expand...

Call the shop and ask them what to do. They will tell you to polorize it and explain how. If you start doing things yourself they probably won't stand behind it (and I agree with them).

Charlie Stephens
 
I polarized the gen. and still no charge! Darn!! I took the gen. off and back to the rebuild shop. I explained to them that it was not charging and told them what I had done and what Tom had ststed. They admitted that the third brush was new to them. They will check it out today to see if they crossed the wires. Will set you know what they find. Thank you all for the help.
 
If the generator is giving them charge when they test it you may want to check that the cutout is working and polarized. In the many times that my ammeter showed no charge it was because the cutout was was acting up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top