Re: Voltage Regulator and Generator Troubleshooting Help

Posted by Packard 1948 On 2016/4/9 17:55:51

After working ALL day I have not had any luck.

The car is a 1949 packard Series 2300. It came with a Autolite Regulator VRP-4402C and an Autolite Generator GGW-6001E.

I removed the generator and installed a generator and power steering unit from a 1953 Chrysler Imperial and this generator is an Autolite GGW-6001 (so it looks like it is a similar generator part number to what came out. The Chrysler however is supposed to have a VRP-6004A voltage regulator (I don't know if that matters). Both are 6 volt positive ground cars.

When installing I made sure I polarized the generator field and the system worked great. It is my dad's car and he said after a couple of months that the voltage regulator got stuck on charging and the charging was so great that the lights were very brite. He fortunately did not burn up anything.

I bought a new (not rebuilt) new voltage regulator and it worked for a short time and then quit so I bought a second one and this one does not work at all. Now I have three voltage regulator so play with.

Here is what I know.

If I ground out the generator field pole directly to the ground the generator produces 6.19 volts at idle and the voltage increases to greater than 7.5 volts when the engine is at very high idle so the generator is working.

If I measure the armature voltage (connecting the + lead of my digital volt meter to the armature pole and the - lead to ground the armature pole) the measured voltage is 6.19 volts at idle and it goes all the way up to 18 volts at high idle. Can this be right??? I double checked the scale and it was on the correct setting and not reading in 10ths.

I have placed the voltage regulator on the fender cover (it is outside the car and not connected to anything) and I am using jumper leads directly from the generator Arm and Field poles to their corresponding terminals on the voltage regulator, I have a lead going from battery - post (the starter cable) to the Batt terminal on the VR, and a lead going from the + post of the battery going to the voltage regulator case. (so I can confirm the car wires are not the fault)

When running the engine there is no power being generated.

I push and close the circuit breaker contacts closed and there is still no power being generated.

I reconnected up the first voltage regulator and it seemed to function fine on the fender and then I installed it and it would not work. I removed it to do the fender test and now it will not work anymore.

Visual inspections of the voltage regulators look ok. Points are closing square and I cleaned the points.

I removed the capacitor from the armature lead at the generator to make sure it was not causing trouble.

Visual inspection of the resistors under the voltage regulator look fine (not burned up)

Does anyone have any suggestions???

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!