3000 charging problems

can someone explain how to test the generator and the regulator on an 73 3000 d the thing is charging enuff to turn out the idiot but with the battery cable removed its only putting out arounf seven volts thanks for your time

It's likely that your meter is not reading the output correctly due to brush noise. Most consumer dvom's don't like ignition and brush noise.

Do this.. get a gauge style ammeter from the auto store.. last i checked, sunpro cheepies were 10$.. can be a -30-0-+30.. or a 0-60 amperage gauge.. don't matter..wire up a wire with a ring terminal on one post. Disconnect your armature on your genny, and wire the ammeter terminal to it, and hook up the wire that had gone to your genny to the free ammeter post.. now you have an inline ammeter.

Make a voltage check ont he battery before starting.. should be about 12.6 for a good battery.. now start the tractor and rev engine up to 1000 rpm.. lamp should go out... test votlage again.. you want to see 13.8-15v, and ammeter should sho a deflection, positive, if you wired it up right.. you should see something I would think inthe 12+ amp range at that rpm.. keeping in mind that genny/reg combo is a 20a max or so.. and that's at higher rpm.. etc.

You can full field the genny by popping the field wire off and jumping arm or battery to fld.. this should make voltage climb.. perhaps to 16v and amps to shoot up to near max if not more... don't do this more than a few seconds to test the thing.

After shutdown you can do a motor test.. slip the belt off the genny, and jump bat to fld and arm.. genny should spin ( motor ).. most gennies that motor, charge.. and most gennies that charge.. motor.

keep in mind that at low rpm's.. gennies don't do much.. that unit is pretty much only a 20a job as it is.. and under 1000 rpms.it don't do much of anything... so you will only get good charge at near pto speeds..e tc..

soundguy

im using a battery load tester with anolog meter not a DVOM meter the tractor has NO gauge jus an idiot lite the lite goes from bright red at idle to very dim red at full throttle the anolog meter read about 7 volts across the cable leads when the positive cable removed. with the cables on the battery i get a reading of about 12.5 volts at wide open throttle

usually its the regulator.. remove the pos bat cable. remove the regulator cover. take your wifes emory board and run it between the contacts on the gap closest to the right hand side or battery side. this will usually fix the problem with the notoriously bad lucus regulator. also could be worn out brushes or stuck brushes... tap the back end of the gen with a hammer a couple of wacks to free up the brushes.. if this fixes it, then you will need to replace the brushes very very soon.

as said earlier,, if the regulator is bad,, running a wire from the pos post on the battery to the field connection of the gen will make it go to full charge.. you should see the voltage go up on the battery post of the generator.. and also the battery.. if it goes up at the gen and not the battery, the the closing points gap in the reg is bad and needs cleaning as well...

i use a cheap voltage meter and have NO problems with DC voltage readings at all.. The harbor freight meters can be had on sale for 4 bucks a piece and even down to 2.99 a piece, on sale.. so I buy 10 at a time and ususally dont bother to replace the battery or leads on the meter when they go bad as it cheaper to grab a new off the shelf.. I guess the chinese are good for something, if aleast it the 9 volt batteries in the meters...

hope this helps.. bill

Did you full field test it?

soundguy