Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

That's a new one to me.

West,

I had that exact same problem happen to me. The car would show a charge and then no charge so on and so on.

I finally took the generator off and took it to a repair shop. He rebuilt the generator since it had some bad wires inside and also replaced the internals of the cutoff relay with some modern hardware. Since then I had no more problems.

There is an older post which may be on here or over on the AACA Packard forum.

UPDATE Link to thread
Dyneto Charge Regulator

Thanks for the link, Tom.

Can you visually see the condition of the contacts or when you do press on them do they feel like they are mechanically sticking? If so, then dressing with a contact burnisher--not file-- or replacing would be the option.

Assuming all the other mechanicals are in good condition, connections clean etc, you might also try repolarizing the generator. May not help but won't hurt either.

There has to be enough residual magnetism to allow the generator to self excite and put out enough to energize the regulator cut out coil from it's off state. Once that is done, it can connect the rest of the circuit for operation.

If contacts are not mechanically sticking, then it almost sounds as if that magnetism is very weak, or a connection somewhere is oxidized with enough resistance that after sitting, the initial pull in voltage is not adequate. Driving or vibration keeps things operational until the next down time.

After several trips, the regulator does not seem to show a charge at all. No more on-again/off-again. A friend came over to help me do some tests to both the generator and regulator. We concluded that the generator is working fine and that the regulator should probably be replaced. I have one on order and will install later this week.

One of the things we tried while trying to spark (pardon the pun, here) life into the old voltage regulator was to polarize the generator.
Now, with new regulator in hand and ready to install, it says to polarize the generator. Pardon my total inability to understand electricity, but do I need to do that again?

Yes. Most manuals suggest you to do this any time the generator or regulator has been worked on or replaced.

My Delphi (former Delphi) engineer friend says this:

"I believe it is the large iron cores of the generator field coil that get polarized - residual magnetism in the right direction (polarity) is what you are after. I don't think there is any residual magnetism issue in the solenoid frame(s) of the regulator.

One of my fears has always been that polarization could be somewhat abusive to the regulator.

Here's what I would do: Install, and start it up. If all is well, do not polarize. If there is any suspect behavior, stop, polarize and try again."

I did as he said. Everything seems to be working fine. Charge at idle, charge at high rpm. Charge at high rpm with lights on, discharge at idle with lights on.

Your friend is correct in that you are polarizing the generator fields and nothing inside the regulator. Done correctly by just momentarily shorting the bat to gen (arm) terminals at the regulator, there should be no damage to the regulator internally. Only other thing I can add is whether needed or not, polarizing was Packards official recommendations over the years.

Attach file:

---

  (10.60 KB)


  (9.28 KB)


  (13.06 KB)

Thanks. I appreciate the information. The reason I wanted to try without polarizing is because i just don't like to cause any more undue stress to the points. I realize if done properly, it should be okay. But since this is the third regulator I've put on in three years, I'm wondering if that's causing a problem.
Anyone else going through regulators at that rate? Are they getting cheap in the way they're built?