WD charging system

The WD that I bought on the auction still has the 6 volt system. It also has a magneto ignition. I will eventually convert it to 12 volt, but the previous owner put a new battery in it to get it ready for the auction so I would like to use it this way for now. The problem is that it is not charging. The generator has what I assume is a new style replacement for the cut out relay. It is a small rectangular box with a BAT & ARM terminals on it. I could use some help on how these systems work. I know the light switch has something to do with the charge rate. I drove it home from the auction, about 6 miles and when I got home the left side of the dash was too hot to keep your hand on it. Tonight I took the dash off the battery box and ran the engine. The resistor on the side of the light switch got red hot almost immediately. I also had a lot of arching between the dash and tractor. If I picked the dash up so it wasn't grounded the resistor would cool down. After it ran a while the arching got less and the resistor didn't get hot. If the light switch was pulled out the arching would get larger. I just had battery voltage across the battery terminals wile doing this so I'm sure no charge was going into the battery. I would appreciate any help you could give me on this. Thanks.

If it has a Low/High charge rate control resistor on the light switch, it connects to the gennys FLD post and then case frame ground (if in LOW charge). Its purpose is for HIGH charge if the gennys FLD post is dead grounded (i.e. resistor isnt in circuit) but LOW charge if the field control resistor on the switch is between the gennys FLD and case frame ground.

If the switch has no case frame ground path/connection that resistor isnt passing any current so its cool plus theres no charge. If the switch has a good ground and its set on LOW charge then that resistor is passing current and it gets hot. If the switch has a good ground but is in HIGH charge the resistor isnt in the current path and again its cool.

If you go down to the genny and just use a jumper to dead ground the gennys FLD post the genny should high charge. If so then but NOT when the switch is in the circuit, the problems either the switch has no ground or the wires bad from FLD on genny up to switch or the switch is bad or miswired

Run my troubleshooting procedure below will tell how to test the genny and how to tell if non charging is a genny versus a VR or switch problem

John T
John Ts Troubleshooting

the generator has two terminslas "A" and "F". The "A" is the armature and goes to the battery by way of the ampmeter. If your keeping the positive ground system, the A goes to the ampmeter and other side of amp goes to the negative battery terminal.... POssitive battery terminal is grounded to the frame... BAck to the generator, the "F" is the field and is actually the ground terminal. IF you jumper it to ground the generator should charge constantly at full capacity, normally 20 amps... the "F" wire really goes to the light switch which has a resistor on the side. During the day light, the "F" is grounded thru the resistor and the voltage drop causes the generator to charge at 2-3 amps. During night hours when teh light switch is on and lights on, you need more charge so the F wire bypasses the resistor and goes directly to ground and you get the max charge, or 20 amps. You can test by bypassing the switch and going directly to ground with the "F".. IF it works, you can eliminate the switch and just add a big resistor that you buy at RAdio Shack and ground it to the F and the generator area.

<a href="http://s436.photobucket.com/albums/qq86/steve-ill/?action=view&amp;current=gen-cutout.jpg" target="_blank"> </a>

Did you think to try flashing the generator? If it is the normal cutout relay and 3 brush generator, the generator armature is a wire exiting the generator frame and going to terminal lug on the bottom of the CO relay. A quick momentary short across the cutout relay battery terminal to generator 'A'(armature) terminal might be all it needs. This works on models that have the F(field) wire going to the resistor and switch in the control panel, any others, those without an external F wire, or one with a voltage regulator, I would do more research before trying it.