49 commodore 8 amp light

harry54

My amp light in c8 just came on for the first time since i have this car. It came on and won't go off. I assume that I need brushes . Would you agree ? The generator has operated fine for 6 yrs... Wouldn't the brushes be the likley culprit? Also if I have a generator out of a 54 hornet, can i just swap them out ? are they the same ? Thanks all for your help >>>>>

[Deleted User]

Went through generator issues with a friend on his 49 recently. The 54 is a different generator. As I recal from the part #'s the same generator was used 47-49 . Then a change was made, regulator had a extra feature added (current reg. i think). Any way the generator on ours was good, had a bad wire between the generator and regulator.

bob ward

It is possible that your generator is doing its job but your amp light is telling fibs because of a faulty voltage regulator.

There is a simple test to check on what the generator is doing, but first, if you don't have one, get yourself a digital multimeter, low end models such as you need are not expensive and are very useful.

With the ignition off place the 2 leads across the battery terminals to find your battery voltage, a healthy 6V battery should read about 6.5V. Then start the engine, and still measuring across the battery terminals increase the revs and watch the voltage. If the generator is OK you should see the volts increase to a maximum of around 8V. Voltages above this mean your regulator is faulty and sustained high voltage will boil your battery dry.