Electrical System Troubleshooting

Posted by Chad on August 22, 2003 at 06:50:19 from (206.230.0.170):

I posted a message a couple of days ago about electrical system charging troubles on my SMTA. Well, last night I was going through the generator/regulator troubleshooting flowchart that Bob M has put together (very helpful) with some interesting results that I was hoping someone could help interpret.

1. With the engine and electrical switch off, the ammeter needle is just below "neutral" (no charge or discharge) in the discharge area of the meter. Is the needle supposed to read straight up at "neutral" when the switch is off? (in other words, could there be a calibration issue with the meter or does it really matter?).

When the switch is turned on, the needle drops further into the discharge (can I assume the ammeter is OK?).

2. I ran a ground jumper from the regulator base to ground. No charge.

3. This is the interesting part. When I jumpered between "BAT" and "GEN" terminals at regulator, the ammeter needle shot deep into the DISCHARGE realm, not charge. When I disconnected the jumper, the needle returned to the previous discharge level. Does this indicate a bad regulator? I'll probably go ahead and replace this per advice from a previous post, but I was curious as to why it would drop into discharge like that.

4. While I had the multimeter out, I decided to check voltages between different points in the system. I noticed while the engine was running, there was approximately 5.8 volts between the F terminal on the generator and the L terminal on the regulator. When I increased RPM, the volts dropped to 5.2. With the engine off and switch on, the voltage is negligible. Would this indicate that the generator is working?

Thanks a bunch for any input or advice and I apologize for my lack of know-how and experience.

Chad

Follow Ups:

• Re: Electrical System Troubleshooting Bob M 08:17:16 08/22/03 (1)
  • Re: Re: Electrical System Troubleshooting Chad 08:49:51 08/22/03 (0)

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