Generator not charging

[Don F]

I am helping a friend troubleshoot his 56 t-bird. The generator is not charging. He has replaced the generator, voltage regulator, and starter solenoid. If you run a jumper to the generator field, the Generator starts up and puts out 14 volts, so the generator works. I have not had a chance to find a wiring diagram but thought I would check to see if their are any common problems or if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Thanks,

Don F.

[vince]

I am assuming the symptom is the car won't start because of a "dead" battery. If haven't already, you should check the whole circuit again to make sure you didn't get a defective new part. If all appears good, check wires closely including the battery cables, could look fine on the outside but corroded on the inside. One last idea, had a similar problem once (not on a T-Bird) and it turned out the ground wire at the block became "insulated" by crud. So, small electrical things worked but big ones did not. Good luck.

[Don F]

The generator was bad, but when they were troubleshooting the problem, they had previously changed the voltage regulator and starter solenoid. I am thinking that something was not conntected back up properly.

After charging the battery, It will start, but the gen light is on.

I already checked the ground connections.

Any other ideas or suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Don

[Alan H. Tast]

Was the field coil polarzied properly? The shop manual should have a procedure outlined to do this whenever a rebuilt/new generator and regulator are installed. If this was not done properly, it may be part of the problem. Regretfully, I don't know the procedure very well. Someone more knowledgable will need to speak up on this.

[Don F]

Alan, thanks for the suggestion. I ordered a manual today but I would like to have it running for the weekend. If anyone can run through the procedure I would appreciate it.

Thanks again.

Don F

[Don F]

Found a link to polarize the generator.

Great info so I thought someone else might be interested. Here is the address:

http://web.utk.edu/~tprather/FoothillsT ... rator.html

Don F