OK, some more data.
This morning I did the voltage test on the generator - pulled off the D
and F leads, shorted them together. Hooked the voltmeter to that and
the case of the generator. Run the engine, get about 0.1v output.
Great, seems like the generator is toast, the manual suggests that the
field winding is at fault.
The cutout shunt coil seems fine - reads about 50 ohms.
Now, if I trip the cutout manually, it stays closed, and the ammeter
indicates that the battery is getting charged. But I can't get the
cutout to close electromagnetically, even with my test lamp trick. This
makes me think that the generator is partially toast - but that it is
willing to generate into a heavy load.
Most recent trick - the "ignition warning" lamp doesn't come on at all,
even with the engine shut off. This *could* be a lamp fault, the
connectors back there have been flaky before, but I'm wondering if it's
another indication of a bad generator; the reason that lamp lights is
because current can flow from the battery through it to the generator
leads (uh, let's see, D, the brush leads), I guess that means that it
finds its way to ground through either the generator case or the shunt
coils in the regulator box? More confusion.
At any rate, I'm planning to put in a new generator tonight and see what
happens. But I sure would like to understand this better. Pat?
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