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Hi guys, need some help please, off topic a bit. I have a 6 volt pos grnd system that started charging too much. With the car running I have 9 to 10 volts at the battery, voltage reg horn relay and everywhere else. There is no draw anywhere with the car off. I check my meter on another 6 volt car and all was normal. I changed the regulator and it still charges 9 to 10 volts. I disconnected many accessories (thinking maybe a short somewhere) one at a time and it still charges to much. I have never heard of a generator doing this. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Richie.

It would really help to know year, model and other specifics about the type of charging system but that's a classic symptom of a grounded field coil within the generator. Grounding the field simply tells the generator to ignore the regulator and put out its maximum capacity. If you've eliminated everything else, install (and don't forget to polarize) a spare generator if you have one; otherwise it's a trip to your local generator/starter shop.

Any chance you freshened the cosmetics of the generator and installed a new metal tag? I've occasionally seen folks do this and mistakenly use too long a rivet and it drives into the field coil and grounds it.

If a rivet or the coil directly is not to blame another possibility if the wiring is in sad shape is a chunk of old insulation has fallen off the field wire somewhere between generator and regulator and the wire has grounded.

"It would really help to know year, model"

This one?

Thanks OZ. I know I could find it there but I don't bother backtracking, just hope the question contains the details. Mostly I wanted to be sure it was not an earlier system before the advent of full generator control.

Qwen_Dyneto, Howard and ozstatman, Thank you for the help, I will now have a few things to check. Sorry to say it is my 50 Plymouth and I have done nothing to it but drive it. This started the other day. I will pull the generator off and see what's going on inside it. I am in the process of replacing the head gasket on my Packard. Thanks again very much. Richie.

Determine if the generator has a moveable or adjustable third brush.

The way i read post #1 above gives me the impression that this overcharging problem just recently started, WHICH means it was not overcharging before. Which begs the question as to what evidence was there to suspect overcharging BEFORE the volt meter diagnostic took place.

Packard V8, that's right, it just started. It does not have the third brush though. Normally after starting the amp meter would charge about 10 amps and then drop back to about the middle (zero) line. I noticed that it stayed charging almost 15 amps and never went back to just a couple of amps, so I started checking what was different. You know the rest. Thanks, Richie.

Disconnect FIELD wire from gen. Disconnect field wire from regulator. Get a NEW piece of jumper wire and connect one end to field of gen andother end to field of reg. If that solves the problem then there is a problem in the stock wire harness.

That sounds easy enough, thanks Packard V8.