Re: The Duchess Project: 1940 Super 8 Convertible Sedan

Posted by Joe Santana On 2023/5/31 12:14:14

CHARGING NOT INDICATED: I took a friend and his family on a 3-hour tour in and around Washington DC during Memorial weekend. Car ran beautifully. Then, I took a night drive for an ice cream cone with my sister and, while lights were bright, the ammeter showed no charging to recover from the load of lights and heaters. I did the generator/voltage regulator test and the voltage regulator is bad. With the Field terminal grounded, the battery showed charging.
I ordered a new VR from Brillman, which warrants them for a year. But there's an exception. If you use a modern gel battery that is on its last legs, it will run too much juice through the regulator and burn it out, and that situation cancels the warranty.

The Optimas wore down pre-maturely, like 18 months instead of 36 months, so the company replaced them (It took a year because they were out of production with Covid). Trying to charge them up, the generator armature turned black and the VR burned blue.

I keep a small HF battery charger under the seat directly attached to the brand new Optimas and plug it into an extension cord in the garage, so when the charger light changes from red to green, I know they are capable of being fully charged, which is what is happening now. Hopefully, all electrical issues will be corrected with the new VR.