'65 standard cub not charging

[Scott from Marshfield]

.. noticed recently that my yellow 65 cub is not charging..battery died, so I trickle charged it overnight... when running the needle never moves towards the "C".. since I have another 12 volt cub (64), I switched the regulators, and the yellow reg worked on the red cub ..so that wasn't the issue.... I did an inspection of the generator and it looked fine, wires intact, brushes looked ok.. put a volt meter on the two gen poles and started the engine, and didnt see any voltage generated...
so - ay expereinced guys out there have an opinion on my problem?
Scot

[Winfield Dave]

Is the generator belt tight?

[Scott from Marshfield]

yes.. tight enough.. has a little play in it but it spins the gen nicely

[Bigdog]

Have you polarized the generator?

[Scott from Marshfield]

I suppose that is certainly worth a shot
didnt know they could become unpolarized...

[Rudi]

They can happen rather easily. Remove the battery, remove the regulator, battery dies or if you have a Cub like mine, whenever it feels like it.

How To Polarize Your Generator

[Boss Hog]

If the gen is marginal in output it will loose polarity

[ntrenn]

Get out your fine sandpaper and start cleaning connections. Inside the Genny, outside, regulator, switch. When you have cleaned up everything in sight and out of sight, re-polarize and go. I've had two now that only needed touchup on the connections.
If you have an ohmmeter, you can verify high resistance connections before you clean them.

[Scott from Marshfield]

thanks.. thats the next step then.. $250 for a rebuilt is steep!

[Eugene]

$250 for a rebuilt is steep!

Local shop specializing in automotive generator, starter, electric motors, should be able to repair the generator at about 1/2 the price.

Less expensive alternative is to install a single wire alternator. $100- range since you already have the 12 volt battery.

[ntrenn]

On the '65, it would not charge when I got it running. It's really easy to pull the generator apart and ohm the external studs to the internals. This one not only was full of mud dauber nests, but all the connections were high resistance. The posts to the internal connections were in the K ohms range. The armature also had high resistance across the commutator lands. A little properly placed elbow grease and a light touch of file on the armature to brighten it and charges like a new one. All the readings came down to under 5 ohms. Took all of 30 minutes.

[Landreo]

In general, a generator should not need to be repolarized unless you hit the side with a sledgehammer. I can only think of one time I had needed to repolarize and that was because I ran it backwards as a motor. A generator that has dirty connections, dirty commutator, shorted windings may not produce enough output to polarize itself.

It does not hurt to repolarize but does not sound like that is the problem. If a repolarize fixes the charging then likely you have deeper problem with the generator that will surface again and again.

put a volt meter on the two gen poles and started the engine, and didnt see any voltage generated...

How did you do that? Ground to one pole and then ground to the other pole or did you try to measure the voltage between the two terminals?

[Scott from Marshfield]

tried to measure between the two terminals yes - not the way to do it?
thanks all for your tip
will try and take the clean and sandpaper everything approach - it does look very dirty inside

[Rudi]

$250 for a rebuilt is steep!

Local shop specializing in automotive generator, starter, electric motors, should be able to repair the generator at about 1/2 the price.

I agree with this part of Eugene's answer. I took my generators and cut-out to my local AC Delco Authorized Service Centre and they took real good care of me, redid one generator, cleaned and touched up a second, did a test on my starter/generator and supplied a new RCP 13327 6 volt regulator for about $350 and change Cdn. or at that time about $300.00 or so US - that is 3 generators and a regulator. I would say that is quite affordable. Generator and Cut-Out. You need to find a good local shop that has been around for a long time -- not one of these younger ones who basically just replace units. It was a very good learning experience for me and one I am not going to forget.

[Boss Hog]

I am not going to tell you put an alternator on it, but I would if it was mine or in my shop
about $50 for alt and $16.50 core charge, you can use the brackets that you have , see my how to
NAPA Alt # is 13-401 SW for a single wire alt life time warranty
Boss