GENERATOR 40 Ford Sdn.

[KeeKeeBoy46]

Greetings guys..... I would like to remove my generator in order to do a little clean up and partial painting. Seems like a good idea to disconnect the battery before disconnecting generator wiring. Any advice on safety and stupid things to avoid? Thank you ! Kenny C.

[Ken/Alabama]

If the regulator is working correctly you shouldn’t need to disconnect the battery. However it won’t hurt a thing to do it. Upon reinstalling the generator you’ll need to polarize the generator. With everything hooked up disconnect the field wire at the regulator and touch it to the Battery connection on the regulator then attach the field wire.

[Terry,OH]

The 40 Generators do not have a ground stud. They use the nut and stud attachment point on the intake manifold for grounding the case and the internals. Suggest not to paint some of these surfaces and clean the intake part of the mount.

[Kube]

Originally Posted by Terry,OH

The 40 Generators do not have a ground stud. They use the nut and stud attachment point on the intake manifold for grounding the case and the internals. Suggest not to paint some of these surfaces and clean the intake part of the mount.

Terry is spot on (as always) with his entire response.
The front of the valve cover as well as the rear of the generator bracket was haphazardly "masked" when painted originally thus providing a great grounding path.
I have attached a photo depicting the two variations of correct and properly restored generators for the 1940 models. Note the first design has the large(r) pulley, the second design, the smaller diameter pulley.

[deuce_roadster]

If anyone is confused, what we call an intake manifold, Ford called a valve chamber cover.

[Bill OH]

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Use a digital volt ohm meter between the generator and the frame of the regulator to determine that zero ohms exist, if not connect the generator and the frame of the regulator with 16ga wire with soldered terminals to achieve zero ohms. Ford added the afore ground wire in later years.

[ndnchf]

If the generator was working before it was removed, there is no need to polarize it again. The pole shoes do not lose their residual magnetism just by removing the generator.

[KeeKeeBoy46]

Ken, thanks for the help regarding the generator. I'd heard something in the past regarding polarization but I wasn't sure how to go about it. Ken

[ndnchf]

Here is a video I made showing how to polarize a Ford 2-brush generator.

https://youtu.be/Rl9KY4wTHm0?si=q1RNq4yxtdqzf6Ow

[KeeKeeBoy46]

Thanks for the info. Kenny C.