My regulator worked perfectly for 6 Years, giving 8.2 Volts cold and 6.8 V hot..
I had set it as high because my top motor needs some speed.
Driving with lights on this weekend, voltage dropped to 5.5 V (V meters built in), showing unloading on the Ammeter. I took off the cover to readjust, but found some pieces of solder in it. Thus, I took all out and saw one of the fat coil wires off its place.
Stamped VB0-4601A 50-62 AMPS, 6V, 2H, 3 terminals same side, it doesn?t have 7 and 38 Ohm resistors as manual specifies, but 15 and 60 Ohm. Too, it seems nearly impossible to get the specified gaps without distorting the armatures.
Current and Voltage contacts have .034 vs .048, stop rivets have .024 vs .012
Circuit breaker has core gap .050 vs .031 and contact .051 vs .015
While working nicely as said, do I have to change the adjustment or did I just get another type of regulator (different resistors)?
Would like to know before putting it back in the car this weekend.
Thanks! Go
I have very little practical experience because these regulators were out of fashion before I started working on them. But I would say that if the regulator has been working for an extended length of time , it's controlling range is within your car's requirements, I would fix it and keep it. Which of the 'fat coils' unsoldered itself, the cutout (circuit breaker) or the current control relay? Where did you get the gap data?
The current control relay coil end worked loose. This coil and the circuit breaker coil are in series and the same fat wire with only 8 windings each. The circuit breaker has a second winding on the same core with fine coil wire, the diagram shows a secondary winding on the current control relay too, but I can?t find it on my assembly. Voltage regulator has one fine coil with hundreds of windings. Both the fine wire coils and both the resistors have different connections than the diagram. Data are from the Ply 1946-1953 service manual.
Thanks! Go
Hi, Go,
I got your e-mail alright, but its been so long since I've worked on voltage regulators that I'd have to go reading through the manual to see whether I could diagnose anything from your description.
As a generality, once a unit, either generator or regulator, has been hot enough to 'throw solder' it can't be easily repaired.
I've got a few new-old-stock regulators here, somewhere, one of which might be suitable for your car.......I'll try to find them in our stored miscellany, which may take a good bit of looking.....
If one of those we have here would work, you are welcome to it.
cheers
Carla
Thanks, Carla, for Your offer!
The thin wire of the Voltage Reg Coil had unsoldered again, but this time the pertinax insulation sheets had become burned brown by heat.
One rivet connecting the coil wire terminal and the generator armature terminal through the unit?s base allowed some very small circular movement between the two terminals. Thus, making a few ohms resistance, the heat unsoldered the wires.
By grinding out the rivet and replacing it with a brass screw plus some custom made Pertinax washers (don?t know English name for sure: insulating base material of circuit boards) to take the skrew?s pressure up, the problem was solved.
While still having different gaps than the manual says, everything works well again, I can touch the terminal with my fingers without finding too much heat.
The manual shows a better construction: two connecting rivets instead of one, so a radial play of the two terminals can not happen
Greetings! Go.