Trouble getting home in Hornet

Lee ODell

Interesting night time 60 mile trip home from CIC Chapter Christmas Party. Got several thumbs up on the freeway. As we interred the Glendale area on I-5, traffic came to a crawl. We got off the freeway to go through Griffeth Park to Burbank. Turns out there are no street lights through the park and I could barely see the twisting road it was so dark. I new we were going to be lucky to make it home. The headlights were barely visible and the engine was beginning to run rough. I turned the light switch off and the engine began running good again. We were still 8-9 miles from home. The rest of the trip was with the head lights off, hopeing no police and to make it home on what was left of battery capacity. The engine started cutting out one block away from home and it finally died 20 feet from the back gate to our home. My good neighbors came to help push it the rest of the way. That is one heavy Hornet to push.

The red amp light never came on to give an indication there was a charging problem. I had the charging system checked a few weeks ago and it checked out OK. There are new brushes in the generator and the regulater looks new. Any ideas. I suspect the regulater is not working now. Any ideas as to why the amp light didn't come on.

Need to go and put the battery charger on now.

Lee O'Dell

Geoff

Lee, you need to check the voltage at the "A" terminal of the regulator. With the headlamps on, speed the engine up and check that the voltage is within 7.2 to 7.5 volts. You need an analog meter for this (that's one with a needle, not a display). If the voltage is too low, it will still be enough to cancel out the warning light, but not enough to charge the battery. If it is at the correct voltage then it is possible that the current coil setting is too low, but this is unlikely.

Unknown

Lee, also check thr bulb to make sure it hasn't burned out. Qucck check to see if it's gen. or reg. at least on Delco systems & I think Auto-Lite is the same, is to momentarily ground the field wire. If it then charges it's the regulator if not then it's regulator. Only ground the field momentarily, as this makes the generator run at max output.

Unknown

Should read" jf it then charges it's regulator, jf not it's generator. Sorry.

Lee ODell

Thanks Geoff and Steve for the tip. Thanks for the correction Steve, you had me wondering for a while.

Lee O'Dell

MikeWA

Steve E wrote:

Should read" jf it then charges it's regulator, jf not it's generator. Sorry.

If memory serves, I think you also have to put a jumper wire between the BAT and ARM terminals of the regulator, to take the regulator completely out of the circuit.

I'd get an auxilliary ammeter and put in the charging circuit for that test- because you said your charge light didn't come on when it was obviously discharging, so how will you know if you're charging or not when you ground the field? The results of the test will also let you know if your charging light is simply out.

I bought an ammeter at NAPA just for that purpose, and put pigtails on it, with alligator clips at the end, so its easy to insert it in a circuit.

hornet53

But... it still got you home!!!

I had a similiar problem on a Fairlane once. I found the connections at the back of the alternator were damaged. Of course, I didn't find this until I had bought and installed the new GM 1-wire for it.