Farmall H generator help

My dad took his old generator from his H to get rebuilt at the re-wind shop. Originaly it had the generator and cut-off on it. It has good wirining so that isn't my issue. The man rebuilt the generator and installed a voltage regulator instead of a new cut-off. My dad hooked it up and was told to only hook up the batter wire to the battery teminal on the regulator. Well it doesn't charge. When you pull out the kill switch the amp gage shows discharge when you start it up the needle just makes it past the 0 mark. Do we have to by-pass the old 4 postion light switch for the new set up to work? There is a wire from the 4-way switch that used to hook up to the old cut off to change the charging from high to low. I tried hooking that up but the needle on the amp meter went completly to the left showing discharge. I also tried to ploarise the generator but momentarly touching the bat terminal on the regulator to the A termenal on the generator and that is when I showed the needle just above 0. Is there anything else I should be doing? Do I need to by pass the high low portion of the old 4 postion switch? The man told my dad ther generator was now set up for one output? I think that wtih the regulator on there you don't need the high low? any help would be great.
Thanks
Chad
the gererator is wired like this A to the post underneath the regulator, F to the feild or F on the regulator and Bat is connected to the battery wire that goes to the old 4 postion switch or ammeter as it was hooked up on the original equpment.
Thanks

So many questions so little time lol just kidding I think we can help.

1) FIRST OFF you need to Polarize the Genny BEFORE start up because if the genny is at opposite polarity from tractor you can damage the new Voltage Regulator. Theres a chance at the shop the genny was Polarized for Neg ground and your tractor may still be Pos ground. POLARIZE THE GENNY BEFORE YOU START IT AGAIN.

2) If it has a Voltage Regulator, its wired:

BAT up to ammeter in dash same as with a cutout relay.

FLD wires to gennys FLD post NOTE theres no longer a wire from light switch to gennys FLD post, DO NOT WIRE FLD TO LIGHT SWITCH WITH A VR

GEN/ARM on VR wires to Gennys ARM post

---Are you at Pos or Neg ground?????? Regardless Polarize the genny before starting next time.

---DO NOT wire gennys FLD to light switch, ONLY to new VR

---If you changed from Po to Neg ground, the ammeter leads need swapped and coil leads need swapped

---I wonder if the new VR is suitable for your tractor polarity??? Id wire the tractor to match the VR polarity and swap coil and ammeter leads if necessary for that polarity and POLARIZE before starting and if wired as abvove it may work and maybe the new VR wasn't damaged

--- FINAL NOTE if the new VR is a 4 terminal (BAT LOAD FLD GEN/ARM) instead of a 3 terminal (BAT FLD GEN/ARM) post back because on those GEN/ARM is often underneath or on one side all by itself and loads like lights and ignition are fed off the L terminal instead of the ammeter or BAT on VR

John T

John
It is 4 wire there is one on the opposite side all by itself and its wires to the genny.
The other side has "L" "BAT" and I think "F"
when I got there Dad had the "L" terminal hooked to the old feild wire on the light switch.
"BAT" was hooked to ammeter and "F" was hooked to the genny. The other side was also hooked to the other post.
So the "L" is for lights? This tractor doesn't have lights anymore so I wont hook that up to anything. The shop had polarized it for my dad. I also polarized it when I got there. when Dad had the old feild wire on the "L" and the ammeter went total negative. I will ask My dad to call and find out if it was polarized for negative ground becasue our tractor is positive ground.

YES loads like lights and ignition (if its a battery powered coil distributor ignition instead of a magneto) are fed off the VR's (L)oad terminal instead of the load side of the ammeter like if it were a 3 terminal VR without an L terminal. The GEN/ARM is usually the one on bottom or one side all by itself which wires to the gennys ARM post. Note, if you ignore the L terminal and feed ignition (if its a coil not a mag) from the load side of ammeter (or BAT on VR) it will still work

DO NOT WIRE IT LIKE DAD HAD IT, wire it as I described above for a 4 terminal VR.

You don't need to ask anyone about how or why it was polarized before, simply re polarize it so it matches your battery polarity BEFORE starting again. Had you changed polarity, you would need to swap ammeter and coil leads, but it sounds like youre stil at the original POS so the coil and ammeter should be fine. I just hope the VR is suitable for POS ground???

John T

when i read the post i almost wondered if the rebuilder simply didn't have a cutout handy, and put any ole cheap vreg on it, and wanted him to wire armature to armature on vreg, and bat on vreg to ammeter inthe tractor.. IE. just using the vreg as a cutout, and keeping the old field tickler lamp switch.

but was unsure..

Yeah from what he said and what dad did, I have no idea what's really going on either. Its hard over the net to really know these things but we just keep trying our best. Id bet many shops have a genny polarized for Neg ground and if farmer Billy Bobs tractor is Pos ground there may go a new VR lol

John T

yep.. battery goes 'OOOOOMMMMPH' genny goes 'oomph' and contacts go 'weld'

I think I got it I think it was working yesterday just wasn't realizing my dad installed a new battery that probably didn't need a charge. I checked it all out again and polarized it. then I started the tractor but it didn't start right away I flooded it and it drained the battery some trying to start it. When it first started up it charged nice and about 5 to 10 minutes later while running the needle was barley above zero then I realized it was a new battery and I assume now that it charged it back up and the regulator dropped off charging because the battery didn't need it? Is that correct? I am just used to seeing the old cut out you set it to low charge and it was the same you set it to high charge and it would charge high until you turned it down and could over charge the battery. Am I thinking about this right?
Thanks for all the help.

With a good battery and a good charging system with a 4 terminal VR, YES Id expect it to charge at a fairly high rate for a period of time after which it would back off to only a few amps if alls well. Heck maybe you're good to go, wait n see what happens.

John T