johngammel

I have what I presume is an AGM tar top reproduction battery in the car. Things seemed to have worked fine until my correctly dated regulator was installed (and I did the polarizing). Of course bad me I didn't do a baseline voltage check with the Bosch regulator.

With either the engine idling or at fast idle the VOM shows about 12.54 volts at the battery where I'm assuming with a almost fully charged battery should be more like 14.2 volts (slightly less at slow idle since it's a generator). The battery gauge shows a slight discharge.

With engine off the VOM shows 12.74 volts. The air temperature is 72, and I have the regulator on the fender open and with an extra ground just to make sure.

Is my "new" regulator caput? Or? Troubleshooting ideas?

johngammel

I checked the points with a magnifier and there isn't any noticeable pitting or burn marks. Nothing else looks smoked. Pic is it sitting on the fender with the extra ground attached. A load test with my Schumacher shows the battery to be good.

johngammel

After talking to a local old time shop put the old Bosch regulator back in service. Now charges at slightly over 13 volts. Will need to RMA the "new" regulator back for a redo.

Frankie the Fink

You almost certainly didn't need to polarize anything with a V/R swap. BTW - you are polarizing the residual magnetism in the generator -- nothing to do with the V/R.
That magnetism might (repeat might) degrade if you had your generator out of the car for 30 years...

IIRC Pirkle is the guy to send those components to for world-class refurbishment.

Pilot Dan

You have one of the good old adjustable regulators there, if the points are OK, follow the adjustment procedure outlined in the 61 passenger car shop manual. I have played with that and you can certainly increase the VR output with the engine running above idle. Couple of things I notice from your picture, the ground wire does not appear to be making a solid connection on top of that gasket. That would prevent you from getting a charge. Either remove the gasket and tighten it down or better yet ( if judging is not an issue) drill a dedicated hole (in the base to the right of the blue wire) for a dedicated ground. That's the way GM did it with ALL the replacement regulators. Pilot Dan

johngammel

The '61 passenger manual (page 9-24) says to bridge the two contacts briefly when putting in a new regulator so that's why I did it. I had a secondary ground for testing. I'm going to have the vendor fix it just in case something else is wrong - worried that if I adjust it, which I could, they might not warranty it. I had two grounds for testing.