First of all, everything has voltage regulators, it's just that new alternators have built in electronic regulators. You have to regulate the voltage or you'll eventually overcharge the battery and burn it up. When I was young and not yet a mechanic, I was driving my Opel Manta through Virginia at speeds of 90-95; and I was commenting to my wife that there must have been sulphur mines in the area as the smell of sulphur was strong. We stopped to get gas, and when we went to leave, the car wouldn't start. I opened the hood to find my battery boiling and the caps were shrunk to about half their normal size. I had the sulphur mine. Well, even though I wasn't a professional mechanic yet, I was a decent shadetree; and I knew my voltage reg was bad and the alt was overcharging. So I drove slowly and with all consumers on to the next exit which had a Buick dealer. Unfortunately, which turned out to be fortunately, the service mgr. wasn't very savvy; and insisted that there was
no problem with the charging system and that batteries just explode like that sometimes. I quickly kept my mouth shut as though I was just out of warranty because of miles, I still had a battery warranty; and I got a brand new battery for about $10.00. I drove slowly to the next town where I found an auto electric shop, removed my voltage regulator ( the Bosch type with the yellow tape around the bottom ), and they put it on a bench and adjusted it for $1.50. Everything was fine after that.
There are a few different types of regulators, but basically the old mechanical regulators had a magnet winding with contacts held together by a spring. As the current increased through the magnet coil, the magnetic strength would increase to the point that it would overcome the spring tension and break the contacts apart thus stopping the field current which energizes the generator. Now, with no current through the magnet coil and no magnetism, the spring is now able to close the contacts again and allow field current to again flow through the magnet coil until again it reaches the target voltage and overcomes the spring force. There are some other wrinkles, but that is the basic idea. They were able to adjust mine by bending the spring tension and making it easier to overcome.
Generators are not necessarily low output at low speed, but are geared that way because of other factors. It gets a little complicated, but basically has to do with using a commutator which taps off the current with carbon brushes; and as the magnetic reaction of the current flowing in the armature distorts the field magnetism in the direction of rotation as current and speed increase, then current generation is also displaced in the direction of the armature coils rotation and also in the neutral zone of the commutator. This makes the commutator segments short-circuited by the carbon brushes at high speed, and therefore burn the carbon brushes and the commutator and overheat the armature. In order to prevent this, they put large pulleys on the generators to limit their top speeds; but, unfortunately this makes them put out little or nothing at idle or low speeds. As new cars acquired more and more electrical consumers, they had to go to alternators.
As for your not charging problem, it could be the regulator or generator. You definitely need to check the commutator and brushes, and you may need to repolarize it. That's what the other post was telling you about making the generator run like a motor. Sometimes your generator may reverse its polarization, and whenever you install a new one, you have to initially polarize it. And then there are many things that could be wrong with the generator itself which you would have to bring to an auto electric rebuilder with a growler to check out the armature; but if it runs by itself when you polarize it, then it's probably alright. You may not be running the engine fast enough to get any output as the generator does some self energizing; but if the generator runs by itself, then the problem is probably going to be with the reg or the wiring.
"J. Ashment" <wyofisher@caldsl.com> wrote: I regularly work with generators on airplane all the time, usually with
either a Ford or AC Delco regulator. From my experience, a generator never
puts on a good charge until you put on some RPMs. They aren't very
effective at idle. The regulator contacts do need cleaning occasionally
like the points on an old ignition. If you have the cover off, pay close
attention to cracks in the soldering, and breaks in the wire. As long as
you get field voltage, it usually works.
Old planes would usually wear through brakes quickly because they would rev
up the engines to get enough voltage to run the radios while undergoing the
lengthy process of obtaining an IFR clearance while taxiing.
Joe
- Original Message -----
From: "blade44m" <zaphod44@earthlink.net>
To: <peugeot-L@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 5:58 PM
Subject: [Peugeot-L] OT - Cars with generators - how does the voltage
regulator work?
> Hey group-
>
> This is sort of off topic, but I'm sure there's someone here who's
> worked on some old vehicles. I'm working on one of my dad's Crosleys,
> and I need someone to explain how the voltage regulator is supposed to
> work. I'm not sure when it's supposed to charge, and how to tell if
> it's working. It's a 6 volt positive ground system, and the regulator
> has Battery, Field, and Armature connections. I'm sure everything's
> hooked up right, but my ammeter is on 0 at idle and drops to -10 or so
> with the headlights on. Isn't it supposed to begin charging at some
> point, or does it wait until the battery's level drops? I flashed the
> Field post on the generator to the Batt terminal on the regulator as
> per some old instructions I have, but it didn't change anything.
> Thanks!
>
> -matt
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Feb 8 13:07:56 2006
