5000D regulator

ed1

Member
Does anyone know where I can get a regulator made in America? I am on my 3rd volt reg ,2nd gen, 3rd battery, 2nd wiring harness. I had the the volt reg( India) and gen checked. Sill boiling my battery! I have checked the grd and rechecked the harness . I do want a tach dr so I can keep up with my hours. A side from spending 350.00 on a new conversion kit, what do you guys think. I appreciate your input.
Thanks,
ed1
 
(quoted from post at 12:09:15 10/30/13) I think you're stubborn. Buy the damn kit and get on with life.

Rod
esla & Westinghouse beat Edison fairly early on, but in cars & tractors, it took almost another hundred years for the conversion/win! :shock:
 
You can buy a brand new NOS Ford regulator for the Lucas generator (I'm assuming that's what you have) on Fleabay. That's where I got mine 5 or more years ago and it's still working.
NOS Ford Regulator
 
(quoted from post at 15:23:26 10/30/13) Converted my 641 to 12v. Used a Delco 1 wire alternator(built in reg) Never looked back.
amp; maintained your tach/proofmeter drive, but.........
 
Keep throwing parts at it, something might actually fix it. Really, a little troubleshooting would probably go a long way.
 
There's not much to troubleshoot when pretty much every piece of the charging system has been replaced. I agree with Rod - stop throwing good money after bad and convert to an alternator. You will not regret it.
 
Thanks RickB for the comment. I did troubleshoot (3manuals ) , checked the voltage and amps and even had them checked by a shop. I have owned the tractor for 10 years and have had these problems! I come to this website for info, knowledge and expertise . That said, I would appreciate help and not talking to me like I don't try to troubleshoot the problem.
ed1
 
(quoted from post at 16:02:28 10/30/13) Thanks RickB for the comment. I did troubleshoot (3manuals ) , checked the voltage and amps and even had them checked by a shop. I have owned the tractor for 10 years and have had these problems! I come to this website for info, knowledge and expertise . That said, I would appreciate help and not talking to me like I don't try to troubleshoot the problem.
ed1

Throw away the GEN/REG system and get an alternator. Keep your hours on a stopwatch or something. The charging system on these older Fords is terrible and simply a money pit (as you have experienced). Or buy the expensive kit if you really think you need a tach that badly. I haven't missed it at all.
 
It's amazing how I don't miss parking the tractor on a hill so I can coast it and dump the clutch, or lug around booster cables all of the time or keep it parked on a battery charger or buy a new battery every other winter... The price of a 4DLT alone now days just about pays for that alternator kit. Even a sub par generator that sort of works will kill those batteries in a couple of years. Amazing that even an Exide junker will last 10 years with a proper charging system.
There's just absolutely nothing I regret about buying a Delco alternator and installing it on a Ford tractor... I've only got one left with a Magnet Marelli and I doubt that will go a whole lot longer either...

Rod
 
Personally I'm not a fan of the 1 wire setup's. The 3 wire 10si fits nicely on these tractors with very little modification and when wired correctly the charge light is retained.

Rod
 
I once had a customer with a 5000 who insisted on continuing to replace his generators and regulators. Later, he had me coming out and changing them, thinking he was doing something wrong. My "repairs" would always last for only a short while, and then he would be back on the phone. By the time we had replaced every charging system related piece multiple times, he was starting to get frustrated with ME. And yes, I was polarizing the generator every time.

Finally I had had enough, and told him to convert. When he hesitated, I then told him to go find someone else to work on it - I simply refused to. From then on, I arm twisted nearly every customer who ever had a problem with that nightmare system from hell to make the conversion. Most agreed with me and did it.
 
(quoted from post at 20:51:38 10/30/13)
(quoted from post at 15:23:26 10/30/13) Converted my 641 to 12v. Used a Delco 1 wire alternator(built in reg) Never looked back.
amp; maintained your tach/proofmeter drive, but.........
I know that the setup is different on 5000, but just sayin'....
 
got a 12v diesel prior model reg laying around? it will run those lucas generators just fine.

you have to do a few jumper wires at the vreg as it is not a part for part match.. but electrically speaking.. it will work.
 

`More often than not, I have to set the "cut out relay" on a new regulator to get it to start charging.. Had to do it just two weeks ago.. and... then.. its good for 40 years. Don't know why they come that way, don't care, just fix it and move on.. Its more common than not now days.
 
the charging system is fine for those smart enough to work on them.

ford carge systems arte good.

lucas gennies are ok.. lucas vregs are sub standard. easy to swap a 'will fit' b circuit vreg from another application to a lucas gen and make it reliable.
 
Someday... you will find out what those systems are really like....
It has absolutely nothing to do with how smart the repairman was or is. When you can repair/replace with 100% new today and in 3 weeks it quits working... and you do same again and again, sooner or later you smarten up and dump the misery.
I've got a 4000 here that's had at least 3 gens and countless regulators in my memory and the tractor is somewhat older than I am...
I do hear of the odd one that works and never gives trouble... and more often than not those are tractors stored in a shed that never get wet... and never do anything either.

Rod
 
Ok, thank you guys for your input. I really appreciate it. I have decided to get the alt kit (250.00 from cheap tractor parts) in the interest of work and travel (60hrs plus week), 75 acres , 5 tractors, 3 pickup trucks, wife with 3 back surgeries, 86 year old Mother to take care of! It is a longer story, but you get the idea. Now I have to take battery out again and sandblast the tray and repaint it. That said I am looking for a permanent fix.
Thanks again,
Ed
 
save it.

I've got PLENTY of gennies running.

If you now how to diagnose and troubleshoot simple Dc auto electrics.. you can keep them running. there is nothing but brushes, and contacts and springs going on.. it's not rocket science.

it's middle school science class stuff with magnetics...

Most people today can't wire a damn lamp. that's the problem....
 
Save what??????? If you're implying that myself, Bern and various others don't know how to troubleshoot these things I'm afraid I've got some news for you..
It's you and a couple others that continue to lead folks down the garden path into believing that those ba$tard Lucas systems can be made to work reliably when the plain simply fact of the matter is that they can't. I've said this various times in the past... if you or others want to dick around with a useless, unreliable system that requires constant tinkering, go for it... and state it as such. IIRC, when you first acquired your 5000 you had some wiring rigged up so that you could repolarize the damn thing every time you started the tractor because it was doing exactly what all the others have done since time immemorial. Then you rigged a B circuit regulator to work on it... If you placed any value on your time you'd have been dollars ahead to install a Delco. If nothing else you'd have something that works when it's supposed to.

In the case of the original poster... he came here some time back, was bluntly told that he ought to install an alternator... and did not. Now he's got 3 gens and 3 regs to show for it, plus some wiring apparently... still doesn't have a working system and still won't until he installs the alternator. All done in the name of saving money, which it clearly has not.

As I said before, I've heard legends of Lucas electrics that never gave any trouble... one of them I found out myself to have not worked for many years, the owner not even knowing. The other one I know if wasn't exactly troublefree and it spent it's life in a heated garage. The rest... I don't know of a single one that ever worked reliably... and I've made doorstops out of a few myself. They're just junk. Always were; always will be.

Rod
 
Please don't sling hot lead my way. Just been lurking on sidelines &reading and occurred to me to ask, beyond the Prince of Darkness origins, what hard specifics of these parts cause them to be unreliable, where millions of others by Auto lite, Delco, Ford, Datsun, on and on, worked for decades? I mean specifics beyond poor workman ship and crappy materials. What details of workmanship and which parts have bad materials and what materials. You get my drift by now. I really want to know exactly what details differ that makes these fail while others work. P.S. I be first to concede electronic more reliable than electromechanical, slip rings better than commutator, BUT that isn't what I'm pleading for amswers about. Thank you and answers from all will be appreciated.
 
I didn't say YOU or Bern or any PARTICULAR other person couldn't troubleshoot them.

I know you and bern and many of the other question answer's here know how. I also know you have no tolerance for them.

I stopped reading your post closely after the first sentence after you jumped to the conclusion that I said you didn't know how to wire them.

I'm saying MOST people on this and other old tractor sites think anything with a wire is MAGIC.

PS... work on em right and you don't have to constantly tinker with them. take that however you want it.

Past a lil educational fun, and or testing I don't tinker with any of my genny or alt systems.

I have had a lucas reg come to me bad.. and have cleaned a few and then sealed up the cases.

they are still running.

I've got more ford electrical systems than lucas.. and I'm not taking up for the lucas VREG.. I think they are for sure the weak link in the system. the genny itself is nearly as robust as a ford one.. though I'd take a ford genny any day.

if you need mroe than 20a.. by all menas.. get an alt.

it a persons system is unreliable.. fix it. in most cases for a genny charge problem. it's EASY to positively ID if the genny has an issue.. or it is elsewhere. once you decide the genny is good 9 if it is ).. then it's gravy from there. ground or vreg are the common BIG issues.

I personally don't like lucas vregs. ihave in the past used ford vregs with no ill issues.

Again.

just because you don't like them doesn't mean they can't be made to work correctly.

i can think of plenty of good reasons to have a genny system over an alt. Most of them involve ham handed 'helpers and employees. ( those ones I mentioned that think electrons are magic.. and don't understand red vs black and positive and negative.

mix all that up and I have seen people kill alternators on a ford sinc ethey know 'all old fords are positive ground' as they burn out an alt hooking it up or jumping it wrong.

at most on a genny / vreg system..you toast a vreg. not the genny

nuf said.

and no.. I was not implying even covertly , that you do not know how to maintain one.
 
when you look at a lucas vreg and genny.

the vreg is the weak link almost always.

they are not sealed well. get dirty inside.. sticky contacts..a nd they corode. you can mitigate it with a lil work.. if working on your tractor doesn't annoy you.

I much prefer ford electrics.

a ford b circuit 12v vreg from a prior diesel will run a lucas genny... etc..
 
I've never had any particular problem with the Motorcraft gens although there only was one to begin with. Lucas... we've dumped many.
And no... I have absolutely no patience to deal with them. I simply look at it from the perspective that the time spent to convert them is well worth it. I do the same with Lucas alternators... and motorolla's...
The only soft spot I have is for Lucas starters. Those seem to be virtually indestructible other than needing the odd cleaning and brushes after a lot of use.


Rod
 
Spot on... and if you were having a real good day there might be a call waiting for you by the time you got back to the shop...

Rod
 
(quoted from post at 04:00:15 11/01/13) Spot on... and if you were having a real good day there might be a call waiting for you by the time you got back to the shop...

Rod
ure sounds like anything helpful or factual here is over & fell into a whizing contest...........too bad.
Why can't people simply have their opinions instead of being a libtard & trying to force them on everyone else??? :cry:
 
When you've watched ~this~ train go off the rails as many times as some of us, it's hard to not comment, sarcastically or otherwise. I hate watching people throw good money after bad when the outcome is known.
I've often wondered if some of the Lucas fans have such good fortune simply because they live in reasonably arid southern climates where corrosion is a much smaller factor in their lives than it is here...

Rod
 
According to my Generator (not Alternator) Man the Lucas gen is fine- it's the regulator that's junk.
 
I didn't know I was going to start all this! I promise I will not bring it up again! Just for the record , I bought a nice original Jube 14 years ago. It was a near perfect original tractor, except it had been converted to 12 volts. Since I was born in 1953 I was very intent on keeping the tractor original. After the usual fluids and gaskets, wiring, points, plugs,tires,hubs, etc., I found an original gen and veg (new old stock) and converted it back. That was 13 years ago, and except for buying a new 6 volt battery last year (12 years from the old) , that is it! So, I don't hate gen & vr's , I just need a better solution for my 5000 after going through that. Thanks for your help and I hope I did't make any of you enemies,
Ed
 
(quoted from post at 06:21:48 11/03/13) No problem Ed. Just passionate opinion from two different sides. Not to worry.

I think the two camps are roughly divided between the restoration guys who want to keep the tractor original, and the working tractor guys who don't want to deal with problematic parts. At least that's the way it is with me. If I was into restoring my tractor to original, I would want to retain the gen/reg.
 

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