Farmall B Generator

Installed rebuilt Generator (rebuilt by electric shop that does alot of them) Replaced the wiring.
Lights work. Still not charging. Light switch seems ok?? Grounds good.

I took apart the Cut out relay before i gave it to the shop to rebuild, looked bad to me, full of rust and crappy connections to me. shop gave me the gen back and said it was ok?? could that be it?

Got BAT wire going to the positive side of the ameter. F terminal to the lower part of headlamp switch, same connection that has a wire to the housing case ground. The GEN terminal was wired to the A post on the generator by the shop that rebuilt it. new battery too.

What i m i missing??? should i replace the $100.00 headlamp switch???

My ameter is a new one that is out of an automotive style guage package that you mount under the dash.

Thanks again to all that help me. --wrench

Can not say for sure on that one but many generators need to be polarized for them to work as they should

i did take a piece of wire and touched the BAT terminal to the A post. didn't change much. still measuring 6.3 volts with lights on and high idle.

Even tried touching BATT terminal to F post.

try running a jumper wire from the field post to a good ground, or even back to the battery. then polarize with the bat to a post.

Ground the field to see if that makes it charge. If it does check the volts on the gen A terminal. It should read more than the batt 6.3. You need to use your meter and check for ground. I use a jumper one lead to the batt ground+ then other probe to check for ground even the lite sw all need a good ground. If you get it to charge by grounding the field you can leave it grounded. Then remove the cover and by loosening up the flathead screw on the carb side of the gen and adjust the third brush to get the charging amps you want. Tone of those type systems are running for yrs with the field terminal on the gen grounded. Let us know what you find out. You can get a regulator for pos ground and you should have either a 1101423 or a 1101435 plate# on the generator. If you decide to get a regulator get the one for the # on the gen as those regs are different. I can get you the correct regulator if you want.

The field has to be grounded to make it charge. It has to ground through the switch so the switch has to have a good ground. If I have problems that way, I just ground the F at the generator & set the 3rd brush so it charges 8 to 10 amps. Most of these tractors don"t get used hour after hour to overcharge the battery. If you think it will overcharge, just take the ground wire off for a while.

If you have the original genny, there is a 3rd brush which sets the max charging rate. Never set the 3rd brush closer to the main brush than 3.2 commutator bars. The main brushes are 180 degrees opposite from one another. The 3rd brush is in between. Move the 3rd brush in the direction of rotation to increase output. Max rate of charge is 9-11 amps hot, 13-16 amps cold with the light switch in the high charge position, no load. (in otherwords, the first notch on the switch without the lights on) The first notch grounds the field terminal on the genny to make max output. If you have poor contact between the switch and the box, the box and the steering post, or the steering post and chassis, you will not have a good ground on the field terminal and it won't charge.

The field wire, natural with a black tracer connects to the light switch at the end of the field resistor. At low charge, the field is grounded thru this resistance, at hi charge, the field is grounded directly to chassis. The resistor that looks like a wire coiled up, (no solid center piece like the field resistor) is to dim your head lights.

All this assumes that you are using a cutout relay (original) and not a voltage regulator.

Gene, when you say polarize, do you mean go from BAT terminal on cut out relay to A post (not F post) on generator? Or go from battery positive (+) to the A post??

gene, thank you for all your help, all of you.

Gene I don't have your email so I will post here.

Sorry to hear about your brother.

Gary

Thanks Gary it came on pretty fast two spots on the liver and one on lower back on a bone.