Re: Rusty Generator

Posted by Dave on September 06, 2000 at 13:10:43 from (128.113.170.152):

In Reply to: Rusty Generator posted by Red Raider on September 05, 2000 at 18:09:51:

Red Raider: The comments below are good, but I wouldn't head to the rebuild shop just yet. Last year, I took apart and re-assembled the original gen. off my '41 A and it was also a mess of red dust. I am pretty sure the field windings as built on these gens were varnished and then wrapped in cloth. It is this cloth that deteriorates over time (from moisture), but if the varish is still good, the field windings will be whole and still work. Try cleaning up the commutator area on the armature with fine emory cloth (it's made from laminated steel, I think), and put it all back together. Apply voltage from a good 6-volt (or 12-volt if you're daring) battery to the gen: neg to the "Gen" post and pos to the generator body (put a brass screw in one of the regulator mounting holes to get a good electrical connection). Apply this for just an instant: the armature should spin like a motor if the generator is good. I did this to my old rusty clump and I get 8.4 volts out of it even at idle.

Before you put it back together, if you feel confident isolating the field windings from the generator case, you can run a continuity test through the field windings to ensure that the windings are still whole: My memory is rusty (no pun intended), but one end of the field windings connects to the "F" post on the gen and the other is grounded to the gen case. If you feel confident that you can re-attach it (I don't remember if it was attached to ground with a screw or not), you can disconnect it, then check the field windings for continuity, and then check OHMs to ground (should be very high). If the ohms to ground are low, then the varnish has failed and you have a grounded field. I don't know how to check the armature, but I think more water collects in the field windings than on the armature, so if the field is OK, I would expect the armature to also be OK.

Leave the field windings in the gen case when you do these checks: You may damage the varnished insulation removing them.

Email me if you have any questions: I was ready to plunk down $$ for a rebuilt, but then as a last resort I said "let's see how bad this old gen really is." When I checked mine, I still had continuity in the field, and it was not grounded, so I gave it the "motor" test successfully, and now it works fine!

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