[AT] Generator operation

[Gunnells, Brad R]

Ok, see if I can help get this back on tractors.....

Dad has a very nicely restored Ferguson TO-35 that has a 12v generator with external regulator. I'm going to drive it this weekend with him (he's driving a Farmall 656) on a tractor ride. He mentioned a while back that it wasn't charging. So I went over and looked at it tonight.

I picked up some testing procedures from Yesterday's Tractor site and a few others. To make a long story short, I took a jumper wire and connected it to the mounting bolt on the regulator to the field connection on the regulator. It excited things and the amp gauge showed a charge. I had my volt meter (cheap Harbor Freight unit) on and it appeared to run up to nearly 17 volts before the regulator kicked out. We fiddled with things a while (put a load tester to draw battery down, etc) and while it will show a charge it makes me think the regulator may be suspect. It shows a 10 amp + charge when running at higher RPMs and then it suddenly drops to 0. I'm used to an alternator where the charge rate drops gradually to zero. Is this how external regulators typically run or is the regulator not working as intended? Good news is the generator is working so that's a plus.

Thanks for any insight from those of you who've worked with these before.

Brad
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