Charging troubles on my WD

Is it a generator with a regulator or a generator with a cutoff? Yes, alternators do better at charging at lower RPMs. Besides that, most alternators have more capacity than your average generator.

I've got CS-130 alternators on all 4 of my D-14s,used original fan belt and pulley from genny, no snipped tin !

Alternators were free from scrapyard,just be sure to get the connector !
Jay

12 volt system...  I have to throttle up to almost wide open to get it to start charging, then can throttle back some, maybe half throttle, and it will still charge.

Make sure the VR chassis is grounded. Run an aux. wire off the foot of the VR to a good clean chassis ground. There could be a couple reasons why the Gennie has to be zoomin' to charge. Bent brush holder, dirty com plate. etc.  If you wanted to move to a small Alternator, we offer the pint size CS121 series Alt, or our new Mini 3 wire Alternator.  If you go with that, we have a CNC machined pulley to fit that smaller shaft for 5/8 belt... If you visit our website you can see the pics of the Alternators.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Steve@B&B                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Hi,
 I just put one of the smaller alternators on a different color machine. Its a nippondenso (sp?) I have the numbers some where. I liked the size, not the price!:) But what a nice small package. Should work well on a WD too.
If I can help let me know. I also did change all three WD's to std GM type three wire alternators and love the way they start and charge!
Regards,
 Chris


Edited by Sugarmaker - 14 Dec 2016 at 8:11pm

For tractors used only for a short time doing chores, the quick charge of the 50 amp alternator is a benefit. The 20 amps of vintage generators can take half a day or more to charge from a tough start meaning its intended to work the field most all day per start which isn't happening for chores.

Gerald J.

That voltmeter is simply decoration, the ammeter tells you more but is a bit messier to install needing bigger wires for the alternator. A voltmeter can tell you there is enough voltage in the system (where ever it is connected) to charge the battery but won't show if the battery is connected good enough to take a charge or crank the engine. A good voltmeter needs to have at least 0.1 volt resolution and be connected directly to the battery, but then with ignition switch off it will run the battery down.

I doubt you can run that alternator with positive ground, it should be negative ground the SAE standard since about 1963.

Gerald J.

Gerald J. wrote: That voltmeter is simply decoration, the ammeter tells you more but is a bit messier to install needing bigger wires for the alternator. A voltmeter can tell you there is enough voltage in the system (where ever it is connected) to charge the battery but won't show if the battery is connected good enough to take a charge or crank the engine. A good voltmeter needs to have at least 0.1 volt resolution and be connected directly to the battery, but then with ignition switch off it will run the battery down. I doubt you can run that alternator with positive ground, it should be negative ground the SAE standard since about 1963. Gerald J.

Why in the world would a company make a volt meter that would intentionally run the battery down? That just doesn't seem right!
 Regards,
Chris

Actually most Alternators charge around 14.7 Volts. 

Good alternators charge at 14.200 volts. That is the charging voltage for a staring battery with full charge 1260 specific gravity. Such a standard battery connected to a voltage regulated source will draw as much current as the source can supply when it needs charging and is first connected to that source. As the internal battery voltage rises towards 14.200 the current goes down and when the specific gravity gets to 1260 from charging, the current tapers to ZERO. And by the ammeter indicates it is fully charged. To get that true information from a voltmeter that volt meter needs to be connected to the battery posts. It takes energy to make a rugged automotive voltmeter work, unlike the microamps for a Simpson 260 multimeter, but the 50 microamp meter movement of the 260 will not survive on a tractor, too much vibration and too much moisture. In the real world such a voltmeter connection would require a relay powered by the ignition circuit to connect and disconnect the voltmeter from the battery. Way more complex than good ammeter wiring.

The battery voltage does go down when disconnected from the charging source even with no load, typically down to about 12.6 volts in a few hours. Voltage drops as it is loaded and when most of the available energy has been delivered it gets down to about 11 volts and for the same load the voltage falls much faster than it did with more charge available.

The magnetic voltage regulator typical of 40s, 50s, and 60s vehicular and tractor electric systems by SAE standard was allowed a plus or minus 1/2 volt tolerance. A 1/2 volt low leads to a battery never fully charged and a half volt high caused much loss of water from the electrolyte and so lots of battery maintenance required. In time the SAE standard has required more precise voltage regulation easily achieved with solid state regulators (my first one I built about 1968 and it doubled battery life in that car) and standard with the internal regulators of the 10-SI and later Delco alternators.

A voltmeter is definitely easier to wire than an ammeter but I claim gives very little information. That car that I built the solid state regulator for (putting a 12 volt VW engine in a 6 volt car) had lab quality voltmeter and ammeter and the ammeter was much more informative before and after the engine swap.

That 14.200 volts is perfect for a battery at 68 degrees F, the perfect voltage rises as the battery temperature rises or falls. A good regulator may take that into account, mine did purely by accident.

Steve and I have disagreed on the lack of benefits of a voltmeter for many years.

The factory "voltmeter" in the dash of my '98 F150 has two calibration points, 10 and 18 volts, nothing in between. A pilot lamp or the dash lamps would give as much information.

There is nothing but diode mounting and wiring in an alternator that sets the polarity. It shouldn't be hard to make one for positive ground. Somewhere I have a Leece-Neville truck alternator that isn't grounded so it can be wired externally for either polarity.

At least in the US since about 1963, the SAE standard has required only negative ground for vehicle and tractor electric system. I believe that to be a result of transistor radios and two way that are instantly destroyed by reversed polarity, where a tube radio just didn't function with reversed polarity. There are no fuses fast enough to protect a transistor radio from reversed polarity, but there are circuits that can do that. Fuses are reliable indicators of blown transistors from abuse like reversed polarity.

Since the SAE standard is negative ground since the 60s, very few alternators have been made with positive ground. The automotive industry argued about the best polarity from the beginning of battery operated starters in the 1920s and some used positive ground, some used negative ground until the SAE standard quit allowing positive ground. There never was a point made and proven that either polarity was superior in function, just transistor radios survived better and with everything negative ground there was less change of a neophyte jumping with the wrong polarity which can be dangerous causing batteries to expand very rapidly spraying acid all over the neophyte and the vehicles.

Gerald J.

Sugarmaker wrote: Why in the world would a company make a volt meter that would intentionally run the battery down? That just doesn't seem right!  Regards, Chris

Generally you'd put the voltmeter on the ignition switch. If you have a magneto you wire a switch anyway.