Question-------------------------
Followup To Question -
Dick, First let me state that the voltmeter check was performed on the battery terminals of the battery for the voltage check.
1) When I disconnect the "field" lead from the regulator and momentarily "flash" it to the battery terminal on the regulator, am I assuming correctly that the Cars battery terminals are connected?
2) What does flashing the field wire to the battery do, eliminate any resistance?
2) If I also were to momentarily connect the armature terminal to the field terminal on the generator (not the regulator),thus bypassing the regulator entirely, where do I connect the voltmeter to check the generator output? Across the battery terminals as before to check voltage output?
Can I also use a jumper from the Armature terminal to the field terminal on the generator,instead of physically removing the armature wire.
Just want to be sure. (I'm in uncharted territory here)
Thanks again,
Curt
Hi Dick,
I have 1962 (original equipment) Thunderbird that has a electrical charging problem. I drove the car recently one evening( head lights on)for about an hour. The generator charging system appeared to be working OK (generator warning light off). Stopped for fuel, shut off car and gased up. When I restarted the car the generator warning light came on and stayed on, and has been on ever since.
Used the shop manual and checked the wiring connections on the regulator and generator and generator warning light for continuity. Appeared connected Ok. Clipped additional ground wire from battery to generator ground, no change. Checked regulator voltage output to battery with a digital meter, barely shows 12 volts(11.8v) not the norm of(14.2-15.2v)readout. If I pull the battery cable off the car while running, the car stops running. (obviously running off the battery). My inductive amp meter showed about @30a output near the generator while car is running.
Knowing the generator armature was really worn out, I put on a rebuilt generator and new regulator anyway. Same problem, the generator warning light still on. Same conditions- no regulator output to battery.
The car also has an new ignition switch. Traced the Generator warning light yel/blk wire back to the "A" field on the regulator. If I unplug the wire from the "A" field on the regulator, the warning light go's out.(not sure where the other blk/grn wire on the generator warning light go's to.
Also wasn't sure how to check for polarization, or for high resistance. I have not yet cleaned the ground cables to the engine or the car body.
Any ideas?
Thanks you for your time,
Curtis
Answer -
Just to review the story here, I understand that the car dies when you pull a battery cable, thus we know that the generator is not putting out enough current to run the engine. For that reason, the reading on your clamp-on ammeter is suspect, in fact those clamp on meters are strongly affected by any magnetic field in the area, so I suspect the reading was meaningless, unless you pulled the wire you clamped it to way away from anything metal, especially the generator case, which is strongly magnetized.
We know the wiring to the warning light was good, else it would not have lit.
I'm not clear as to exactly where you checked the voltage, but if you checked it on the battery post and only got 11.2 volts, that is the third confirmation that the battery is not being charged.
Your warning light is operating correctly. I think you must have a bad rebuilt generator. I would be very surprised if it is a polarization problem, as your car is negative ground, which 99.99% of cars are nowadays. However, you could double check this by polarizing the generator before you take it back to the rebuilder to have him find what's wrong.
To polarized the generator, first you must verify that you have a 62 generator, because 63 was a changeover year from internal to external field grounding, and it makes a difference in polarizing procedure. If your generator has an AMP rating of either 30 or 35 AMPS, it IS internally grounded, and it's probably a 62.
If it's a 40 Amp generator, it might be a 63 or a 59-60 and we need to know which because they are different also! (Welcome to the world of Ford!)
Assuming it is a 30 or 35 AMP generator, disconnect the "field" lead from the regulator at the regulator terminal, and momentarily "flash" it to the battery terminal on the regulator.
If this doesn't fix it, I think you have a bad rebuilt, and you need to investigate that.
Of course it is also possible that the new regulator isn't working right either, possibly because it isn't well grounded. You can eliminate this possibility by momentarily connecting the armature terminal to the field terminal on the generator, thus bypassing the regulator entirely. This should make the generator go to maximum output, so if you have your voltmeter on the generator output when you do this, you should see the voltage jump up to above 15 volts. Don't keep the wire on there for longer than needed to make the measurement. If that happens, the generator is OK, and you need to investigate the regulator.
Dick
AnswerTo Question #1 - yes, the battery has to be hooked up.
To Question #2 - What you are doing is sending a momentary surge of current through the field and armature winding in the correct direction to "polarize" the generator. This will draw a spark when you make this connection, as the load is inductive. This is only 12 volts; you won't feel it, but it might startle you. This can be done with the engine turned off, but the battery has to be hooked up to provide the source of the current that does the polarizing.
The reason I said to disconnect the field wire from the regulator is to avoid damage to the regulator when you do this.
To your third question (also numbered #2), you measure the voltage at the battery - you should see an immediate jump in voltage when you make this connection with the engine running. Any increase in voltage at all indicates that the generator is putting out current - if it is really healthy, the voltage will jump about a volt or more. More is better, in this case, as the generator should go to maximum output when you do this - what you are doing is the same thing that the regulator would do if it were hooked up and working correctly, and it thought the battery was really low - it would call for maximum output by connecting these same two wires with its internal circuitry.
The regulator field wire should probably be disconnected at the regulator when you do this to avoid any possiblity of damage to the regulator, although that is pretty unlikely.
If I were there, I would do the regulator bypass trick first, because if that shows charging is occuring , we know the generator is already polarized correctly and we can skip the polarizing step; we know the problem is at the regulator.
I hope this is clear enough, but if not, ask again!
Dick
