CHARGING PROBLEMS

[Jim Becker]

I wonder how much of this "problem" only shows up with the new repro ammeters. Maybe the old meters had more mass in the movable coil that damped out a lot of the vibration. It would be an interesting experiment for someone that is seeing the problem to temporarily wire an old ammeter in series with a new one and see if they both act the same.

[birddog]

I wonder how much of this "problem" only shows up with the new repro ammeters. Maybe the old meters had more mass in the movable coil that damped out a lot of the vibration. It would be an interesting experiment for someone that is seeing the problem to temporarily wire an old ammeter in series with a new one and see if they both act the same.

Jim, in my case I'm pretty sure the gauges are original, that being said maybe that's the problem. Maybe they're wearing out.

I would also question the advice of someone telling me I don't need to polarize the generator.

I think in this case that it was the re-builder saying it, that would be right. That is as long as it came from them and went on the tractor and wired correctly. If the re-builder tested it by motoring it with it hooked up as positive ground that is all it should take. Anyway that's what I do, and I have not found it necessary to polarize a generator in over 40 years. The couple times I have tried it, one time it made no difference and the other I wasn't careful enough on a hard to get at regulator and I hit the wrong post and fried the regulator.

Now the disclaimer. The experts have been saying that a generator needs to be polarized for years, (probably sense the very beginning) and this probably is a good thing to do if there is a question to the generators set up.