Charging Help Needed

[Franchise_24]

Ok Fordbarn, I need some help. For whatever reason the Leatherback is no longer showing a charge on the ammeter. It shows discharge when I turn the lights on. I have tried 2 different ammeters and 2 different cutouts to rule those out, and I have adjusted my 3rd brush some to give it extra power. The generator was rebuilt about a year to year and a half ago, and was working great up until our last trip last season. I've got about a month until the first time I take her out, and want to figure this out. Anyone have any ideas or can point me into a direction to start to figure things out?

Thanks,
Neal

[jrelliott]

Does the ammeter show any discharge with nothing turned on? If there is no discharge, then check the commutator of the generator to see if the other two brushes are tight against it and if it is dirty you could try cleaning it up with a piece of emery cloth pushed against the commutator while the engine is running. Use a wooden stick to push the emery cloth and not something metal.

[eagle]

For charging issues use a voltmeter. There is no way to really check it otherwise. What is the voltage coming right out of the generator, at the cutout? What is the voltage on the other side of the cutout? What is the voltage on the battery? All these tests should be done with the engine running, maybe 800 rpms or so. Use a wire and short across the cutout for a second or two, any change in voltages? Use a good quality meter or your readings will be worthless. The power on an A is very "dirty" and will give erroneous readings unless you have a good meter. I use a Fluke 77 meter. Had it since 1986, use it almost every day, carry it with me in my toolbox wherever I go. Used on Ebay they go for about $50-75. Worth every penny.

[Kurt in NJ]

The car should show a discharge with the headlights on ----it says so in the owners instruction book, if you have a discharge without the lights on then you have a problem.

measure the voltage ---not running, idle, above idle, then with the lights on

You could take the belt off and see if it "motors" ---with the belt off jump the cutout, the pulley should spin, this isn't a sure sign of a working generator ,but if it won't motor you do have a problem.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Measure the voltage right at the generator post as mentioned, and use the generator case as the meter ground. Then move the meter ground lead to a good engine ground. This will check the generator to engine ground as being good. I've only seen one generator to engine ground go bad, and that was due to heavy rust, but it caused the generator to put out high voltage and burn out.

If you don't have 7 or more volts at the generator output post at 800 RPM then remove the band and look inside. If you don't see a wire off the brush or something simple, then remove the generator and take it apart for more checks.

[billwill]

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Tom you always have good advise

[Franchise_24]

Thanks for all the advice. I did some more checking, and we found that the generator won't motor after I took the belt off to test it. Found a really good exploded view of the generator online so going to check out the insides and see if it is something simple (hopefully) and if not take it back to the shop that rebuilt it back in 2012 and have them check it out.

[Franchise_24]

Just wanted to update everyone. The generator is bad. The shop looked it over and said the windings (or fields, forget which) were bad and the armature was bad, and they wanted $275.00 to fix it, so I said no thanks because you can get rebuilt ones from the vendors for $215.00