Battery isn’t charging

[TomStein]

Hi everyone. My battery won’t start. I’ve followed the process in this video https://youtu.be/II-6nOw28J8 to help diagnose. I’m doing so, I bypassed my voltage regulator to see if my ammeter would respond. Here’s the weird thing. It momentarily jumped instantly once. Then That was it. After a quarter of a second of testing, bypassing the voltage regulator didn’t have any affect on my ammeter. That seems like an inconsistent result to me.

So does anyone have any thoughts on if I have a generator problem, or voltage regulator problem, or both? Or how I can figure that out?

Thanks I’m advance!!

[Jim Becker]

First off, that video has bad information. You will be better off not depending on that particular source, video or book. Disconnecting the battery cable when the engine is running for one bad suggestion. The tests called out are hit or miss on what problem they might find.

As far as the inconsistent results, you probably have a bad ground. The generator and regulator both need good grounds. In a cut-out system, so does the light switch.

There is a good troubleshooting chart in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=113522

[tst]

that link from Jim is if you have a cut out relay, if you have a voltage regulator use this chart

[Glen]

Hi,
You didn't say what year the Cub is.
IH used the cutout, or Relay, IH called it on top of the generator up to Cub serial number 115403.
The Relay has 3 wire connections on it.
They changed to the voltage regulator at that serial number above. The regulator isn't on top of the gen, it is originally on a bracket beside the gen.
The voltage regulator has 4 wire connections on it.

If you have a voltage regulator, use the chart number 8 above, it is also in the link Jim B. posted above, it is down the page past the number 7 chart.

[TomStein]

You didn't say what year the Cub is.

1963 Lo-Boy. It has a voltage regulator next to the generator with 4 connections.

[tst]

63 use the chart posted above