Jowett 8 Generator Question.

[The Bradford man]

After my Father passed away last year and when we ran his 8 hp to the funeral we keep having to use a jumper battery.
He did leave out a generator out on the work bench before he passed. So I'm taking a stab in the dark and am guessing it mite be faulty?
Im not that flash at working on car electrical and always had dad to give me help with it.

How do I go about checking bestway that the Generator is working correctly? Putting out correct volts etc?

I hoping to get the 8 or 10 rd legal to run to this years south Island rally

Thank You.

[Tony Fearn]

Hello James.
I don't know anything about dynamos, but read yesterday that Forumadmin, who does know about such things may be in France at the moment.
Perhaps he'll post on his return if no-one else can help.
Tony.

[Keith Clements]

The Gallery has this useful checkout procedurewhich you can find by typing dynamo into the search box!
Any issues on understanding please post on here.

If the dynamo is on the bench then you should get some volts (1.5 -3v) when it is spun. The most common fault is a broken brush wire or worn brush. So just checking continuity/resistance of the armature and field winding usually uncovers the problem.

[richard turner]

Assuming a twelve volt system with a voltage cut-out then the dynamo should give about 13.5v at the battery with the head lights on. This is only a rought test. If it dosn't then the most likely problem is the cut out which is likely to point corrosion. Could also be the dynamo brushes and if fitted with the third brush system, this brush being very small is likely to give problems and again cause problems for the cut out.

[The Bradford man]

I also think its been converted from 3 brush to 2 brush on the generator. Im not sure how much of a difference that makes?
Also the amp meter bearly moves to the 1st mark on the amp meter for the charging side.

[Keith Clements]

Please go through the checklist, it should find out what is wrong. Without doing the simple checks with a multimeter, you will not be able to identify where the fault lies, particularly when you do not know if the setup has ever worked .

[richard turner]

If converted to a two brush system then there will be a more modern regulator unit fitted. These require speciallist set up although they can be checked for corrosion on their points.

[The Bradford man]

Problem sorted. Wire connection was just loose. Regulator got wound up a bit too.