Generator problem

tombia

tombia

Member
I must just be getting old, after 60 years of this I should know by now. It seems my generator has quit working. Took it off and it looks good, no evidence of overheating, When hooked up to a 6v batt. it motors over fine, cutout OK, its a diode and not shorted out. all conn. are tight, new batt. What gives? Would it motor over if 3rd brush shorted out, and would I be showing ground on 3rd brush holder when the whole thing together? I rebuilt this 2 years ago, new brushes, turned armature, etc and it has been working great till now.
 
I just worked on one that works the same, or not works! Checked the armature on a growler, checks good. Checked the field winding's, no short there. None of the brushes or holders are grounded that shouldn't be. Put it back together. When you lift the 3ed brush it motors fine, in fact set it for neutral. Put it back in the car, nothing. :( It was suggested to me today that it could be a short that only shows up when it is rotating.
 
This one motors fine with the 3rd brush down. I don't drive it far, about 2 miles to local cruises twice a month as the tires are 30 years old, lucky I have a new battery and a good battery charger, and it runs like a champ on mag. hopefully I will get it sorted out soon. Thanks for your comments.
 
Sometimes my ammeter showed the generator working normally, and sometimes it showed absolutely no charge. It turned out that the problem wasn't in the generator at all. Check all connections.


 

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Good point abut the terminal strip. The one I was working on has all new wiring and terminal strip. While yes the meter could be funky, there is no reading from the generator itself. I will have to look at it more another time.
 
I am thinking that the 3rd brush may be shorted to ground. I am showing good voltage at the batt. side of the cutout, but nothing at the gen. side while running. double checked all other conn. It's been 3 years since I went thru this thing, rebuilt switch, new terminal block with nuts and bolts instead of wood screws, new wire loom, Question is should I show a ground on 3rd brush when it is setting on the armature?. Anyway I am going to pull the gen. and go thru it, checking everything
 
This may sound dumb but in reference to Steve's post: do you have power to the batt. wire at the generator?
 
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