VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Battery Charging issues

I agree with Gene the description of the situation says generator is not generating.

Remove the fan belt,use a jumper wire from the BTRY post on the cut-out to the GEN post on the cut-out. This should be a strong connection, but enough to make the generator MOTOR. The generator should turn by itself. If it does not make the generator turn, remove the two bolts on the generator tilt, and the belt tightening bolt if not already removed.

You may decide to work on the generator yourself, but I recommend you take it to an electrical shop that works on generators and starters.

I just had this happen on my olds generator. Is it possible the wire to the 3rd brush is stiff and not letting the brush make good contact with them armature. Because I have a resistor in mine, the wire was under the corner of the resistor and holding the 3rd brush just off the armature. It would only make about 5.5 to 6 volts even when I was adjusting the brush. When I realized the 3rd brush wasn't contacting the armature, I fixed the contact problem and bingo, 8.8 volts.

Thanks Guys.

I decided this morning I am going to take my generator to a specialist (Shorty's) in Tulsa today. They have been doing this work for over 40 years.

I looked at the brushes/springs and third brush wire and they all seem good. I can push the brushes to the commutator quite easily and they seem to make good contact.

I will see what Shorty's says. I have other cars to work on including my '77 Cutlass.



Bob

You should not have to "push" the brushes to the armature as they are spring loaded and the spring tension should keep them in contact. Good decision to bring it to the rebuilder and have the generator checked.

All three brushes should be in contact with the armature comm. at all times. If you have to push the brushes down to make contact with the comm. then you probably have defective brush springs.

"All three brushes should be in contact with the armature comm. at all times. If you have to push the brushes down to make contact with the comm. then you probably have defective brush springs."

That's what I meant but probably didn't say it correctly. My wire wasn't letting the spring on the 3rd brush pull the brush down tightly enough to the armature so it was not having any effect. Freeing up the stuck wire let the spring do it's intended job and it now works properly. Sometimes the mind thinks one way and the fingers don't seem to type out the same! If he can push the brushes down to the armature then there is something not right.



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Took it to Shorty's. He put the generator on the machine and said "it ain't working". I hope to get it back mid next week in top form. Finally.

Bob

So...when you had the generator rebuilt before didn't the shop test the generator for output before giving it back to you?

That is a good question. I thought that they did when they said it was good.

Hmmmmm.

Obviously they didn't test the generator or they would have found that it did not have any output.

Yep. And all along, "the butler did it".

Could have saved me some time. At least it has been fun though.

Got my bad armature replaced. See the pictures below.

Reinstalled the generator to the sedan. Praise the Lord. So yes it was the generator armature. The generator is putting out anywhere from 10-15 amps at the ammeter with a reading of 8.62 volts at the battery. Both readings with the engine warmed up and running with no lights on.

Thanks to all.

I guess the thing to do tomorrow is to adjust the third brush and try to lower both numbers.

I am curious as to how much the needle should fluctuate while running?





Bob

I would say that the folks that "rebuilt" your generator the first time around didn't seem to have a clue as to what they were doing because it is totally obvious that the existing armature is defective.

Set up your third brush so that your generator is putting out a max. of 10 amps at peak, lights off.

I totally agree and will do. Thanks Junkyard Dog.

Bob

sounds like they may have overhauled the generator
replace this and that

G;ad you got it taken care of and should provide years of happy Voltage :)