Generator Motoring / Cutout sticking

[sethkestenbaum]

I thought I would post about a non-event repair I had to do today. When I got to the garage and switched my battery disconnect switch to "on" I heard a whirrrrrrr from under the hood. You guessed it, I have a sticking cut out and a motoring generator (or at least trying to move the fan belt). I've never had one stick on me, but knew that they could.

I am thrilled:

1) to have installed a battery disconnect switch. Without this added safety feature the generator could have motored when I wasn't near the car and burned out or worse.... heated up too much and started a fire.

2) that all my fordbarn post reading and experiences with the car since 2011 enabled me to diagnose the issue before even opening up the hood. There is nothing else electric under that hood that could whirrrr but the generator (edit: yes, the starter could spin too)and no reason for it to do so unless I had power going through it. The cut out, if sticking, can cause motoring.

3) I happen to have a backup cut out that came with a busted generator I recently purchased. It fit great and only took about 2 minutes to find.

What did I do? Set the battery switch to "off", swapped out the cutout (it took 2 minutes) and ordered a new diode cutout that will to be kept in the car as a back up. After nearly 9 years with the car, this was probably the quickest and easiest repair I have done.