VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 Battery shorting out

I have a new harness and the electrical system was showing charge. Now I show discharge and when I touch the negative terminal on the battery post I show small sparking. Where do I start looking for the short? Ricardo

After you installed a new wiring harness, did you repolarize the generator? Also, how much discharge are you showing on your ammeter? Is it a slight discharge or is the needle pegged? :confused: :( :(

I did that once, I didn't leave the negative cable hooked up long enough to notice that the cigratte lighter was pushed in, and had not had enought time and current to "Popout", durn thing almost caused me to panic.

Last time needle "pegged." I took off the starter and cleaned it all real well. No, I didn't know I had to polarize the generator again. Most of the time when I was starting her the needle would just show discharge (slightly). Now I'm wondering if generator is doing her job. Would it hurt to get an eight volt battery? Thanks Junkyard dog. Ricardo

Hi Ricardo,

It would help if we knew what type and year vehicle you were working on.

In the meantime, it is suggested you NOT mess around with an 8-volt battery. Let's fix the problem first.

Check to see if any lights come on when you connect the cable.

Keep us posted.

1928 Chevy. I was wondering if the regulator points are gaped properly? She was working fine. Battery showed charge as I would take her about 35 mph. Cleaned the frame part which is the negative ground. Thanks, Ricardo

Your car doesn't have a regulator, it has a cut-out and it is mounted on top of the generator. Yes, there are two adjustments on the cut-out, the point gap and the air gap. However, the cut-out is only an "off-on" switch and it doesn't do any regulation. The third brush on the generator adjusts for the output of the generator amperage.

Like Raymondo said, stay away from an 8 volt battery! Converting to 8 volts is a nightmare, and you don't gain a thing. :eek: :eek: :eek: :( :(

I reconnected battery after charge and the culprit seemed to have been the starter. Must have been touching and grounding out one of the wires. Armature was oily too. Quite a bit of buildup between copper sections. Thanks, Ricardo

Hi Ricardo,

Glad you found the problem. Sounds like you need to take your starter to an electrical shop and have the armature trued and undercut. May need bushings and new brushes at the same time.

Generator armatures are undercut, starter armatures are not because they don't use carbon brushes. If a starter armature was undercut by mistake (and some starter shops do undercut them not knowing that starter armature comms. should not be undercut), then the starter armature comm. should be turned and then undercut again. However, if a starter armature was never undercut before, don't undercut it...the comm. should be turned only! :eek: :eek:

Hey! JYD, I didn't know that!...... Are you sure?..... Oh! , <img border="0" alt="[twix]" title="" src="graemlins/twix.gif" />

Yep.........I'm sure. And......that wasn't a Budweiser decision either! :eek:

I had a discharging problem with my 28 and it turned out to be the cover for the cutout on the generator.

At times is would touch the inside cover and made contact to ground and would peg my needle as it was discharging my battery

That would do it since the cover has to be insulated from both the "BATT" and "GEN" terminals on the cut-out base. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Yea, most problems that seem very complex ....have a simple solution at hand...... I wonder who first said that?......it wasn't me...

It was me! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Ok, so it was........