Voltage Regulator

I have a B with a new 4 wire regulator. It was not charging and after going through diagnosing the problem I figured out that the coil in the regulator was not pulling in so it wouldn't charge. It would pull in if I jumped from the A Terminal to the Bat on the Reg while it was running. I adjusted the clearance of the contact on the coil and it will pull in but not always sometime it would and others it won't. With the coil open the generator is making 7.5 volt with it closed 6.2 volts. is it a weak coil?

Yes it would appear so especially after you've adjusted the gap on it so say .040 clearance. There are two windings on that cuto9ut relay and it would appear that the fine wire (voltage) one is defunct for some reason because that's the one that should close the gap as you approach 6 volts and certainly above that. The high current coil is working which holds it closed after it's made contact and has high amperage flowing thru it. Very little can be done with it now except to perhaps spot the broken wire if one exists and reconnect it. Most often it's broken well inside and can not be fixed - you need a new VR in that case.

The VR does need a ground for this coil to work, outside chance that although the generator is bolted to ground, the connection is not sound electrically. OR the paint on the VR base is not letting the attachment screws ground it to the generator case properly.

Ron, you state:

"It would pull in if I jumped from the A Terminal to the Bat on the Reg while it was running."

The Cutout Relay portion of the VR is essentially between BAT and ARM so once the genny is producing sufficient it closes so the gennys output can get to and charge the battery but when you shut down it opens so the battery doesnt reverse discharge through the genny. THE VR NEEDS A GOOD GROUND AND THE GENNY ALSO TO WORK RIGHT insure the VR is well grounded.

SO WHEN YOU JUMP BAT TO ARM (in case cutout relay is bad) DOES IT CHARGE THE BATTERY THEN???????????


YOU STATE

"With the coil open the generator is making 7.5 volt with it closed 6.2 volts. is it a weak coil""

With the cutout relay open Id expect the gennys open unloaded output to be well over 7 but that's NOT the whole story, its what voltage it can maintain to charge a battery IE when connected to a load. If when the relay is closed and its connected to the battery if the battery voltage IS ONLY 6.2 VOLTS THATS NOT GONNA CHARGE THE BATTERY. To charge the 6.3 volt battery the genny needs to raise its voltage to 6.5 to 7+ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU NEED TO DEAD GROUND THE GENNYS FLD POST WHEN RUNNING TO SEE WHAT THE BATTERY VOLTAGE IS THEN ??? with the FLD grounded and the cutout relay by pass jumped around at fast RPM if the genny is working it will raise battery voltage to 6.5 to 7+. If battery voltage doesnt rise with FLD grounded and relay closed or by pass jumped around at fast RPM iffffffffff all is wired right and well grounded THE GENNY MUST BE BAD as you essentially took the VR out of the equation

RUN MY CHARGING TROUBLESHOOTING PROCEDURE LINKED BELOW TO SEE IF NON CHARGING IS A GENNY OR A VR PROBLEM !!!! If when running the battery voltage (BAT on VR) isn't rising over 6.2 the system isn't charging. If when running you ground the gennys FLD and she still dont charge it sounds more like a genny then a VR problem........

Did you polarize the genny before starting up ????????????

Run my procedure

http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=jd&th=458743

then see what happens and post questions

John T
John Ts Charging Troubleshooting

Adding a ground wire was one of the thing I added during my diagnosing to make sure.
thanks for the help

Youre welcome, run a few tests and let us know what you find.

Best wishes

John T