Generator Failure

Posted by JWL On 2016/4/3 17:55:10

I saw the 55 Clipper that was once mine at Kerrville. The new owners drove it down from the DFW area. Upon arriving in K'ville they discovered the generator was burned up. The screw holding the ground wire backed off and the wire came off. This was unfortunate as a replacement generator was needed. I suggested they could drive the car home during daylight on just the battery if none of the electrical accessories were turned on. Also suggested they remove the Arm and Fld wires from the unit. This probably earned the the "Hard Luck" trophy.

I find this failure curious. Do not understand how a ground wire coming off would cause the generator to burn up unless it shorted the field terminal. It is an Auto-Lite unit with a universal voltage regulator that I installed. They said the system was working fine until this happened. Any ideas?

(o{}o)