fixerupper
Well-known Member
A few days ago I posted about a generator that motors OK but doesn't charge when the field is grounded. I gave up on it and got a rebuilt. That burned commutator block worried me too much. The rebuilt genny came from Wilson. I've heard about them before but don't know much about the outfit. Anyway, I got the new genny home and there were no holes to bolt the regulator down, so I used a hose clamp to hold the regulator and ran a separate ground wire from the regulator to ground. I am not going to wait another three business days for another genny to come. I had bought a new regulator previously thinking that was the problem and I decided to use it instead of the old one. I bolted everything together, polarized it and started up the tractor. The ammeter went to big discharge , then it went to charging but the needle was bouncing around so I shut it down. When I shut it down the ammeter went to full discharge so I pulled the battery cable, removed the new regulator, put the old regulator on, polarized it and now all is fine. The new regulator I took off was hot, not burning hot, but hot and yes it was hooked up right, I double checked it.
The new regulator cost a twitch under $100, the rebuilt genny cost $250 through a parts house. That's $300 just to get an old tractor charging again. I haven't bought a rebuilt genny for a good 10 years or maybe longer , I have always been able to fix the old one, so I was a little surprised with the cost. When I found out what that thing cost I was about 'this' close to leaving the generator on the counter and going to a junk yard for an alternator but the purist in me kicked in too strong. What ever happened to the days when we went to the dealer or parts house, picked up a generator and or regulator for fairly cheap and put it on and took off without a bunch of trouble?
Anyway, the defective regulator is going back. $100 is a big incentive to not just throw it in the trash and call it a bad deal.
The new regulator cost a twitch under $100, the rebuilt genny cost $250 through a parts house. That's $300 just to get an old tractor charging again. I haven't bought a rebuilt genny for a good 10 years or maybe longer , I have always been able to fix the old one, so I was a little surprised with the cost. When I found out what that thing cost I was about 'this' close to leaving the generator on the counter and going to a junk yard for an alternator but the purist in me kicked in too strong. What ever happened to the days when we went to the dealer or parts house, picked up a generator and or regulator for fairly cheap and put it on and took off without a bunch of trouble?
Anyway, the defective regulator is going back. $100 is a big incentive to not just throw it in the trash and call it a bad deal.