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EFV-8 Club Forum / 1940 Ford Discussion / Battery Gauge:

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Battery Gauge: -- page: 1 2     fortyford 06-23-2019 @ 6:33 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 206 Joined: Nov 2009 At say driving 55-60mph down the road what should the battery gauge read?My 40 use to read in the green but does not do that anymore.It usually in the orange area for some reason?If i just turn the switch on and wait about a minute it does not quiet get out of the red area?Any ideas on what I need to check or do?Been like that for awhile.Car cranks and runs good with no problems? carcrazy 06-23-2019 @ 7:06 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1587 Joined: Oct 2009 How old is the battery? It may need to be replaced. fortyford 06-23-2019 @ 7:26 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 206 Joined: Nov 2009 Battery is 3 years old.I did replace the voltage regulator and did not help? carcrazy 06-23-2019 @ 8:42 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1587 Joined: Oct 2009 Did you polarize the generator after you installed the new voltage regulator? You might want to check the brushes in the generator. Make sure that they are contacting the commutator of the armature and that the electrical leads are tightly connected. Sometimes the springs which force the brushes to make contact get weak or break. fortyford 06-23-2019 @ 9:40 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 206 Joined: Nov 2009 Something I noticed that I thought was strange is that if the car is sitting just idling very slow with headlights on and I rev the engine up there is no change in brightness of headlights?I thought there should be?Yes, I have polarized the regulator on many occasions. This message was edited by fortyford on 6-23-19 @ 9:42 AM TomO 06-23-2019 @ 3:55 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7243 Joined: Oct 2009 Check the voltage at the battery with the ignition and lights off, a fully charged battery will read 6.2V Check the voltage at the battery terminal of the voltage regulator with the engine running at about 1,500 RPM. It should be 7.2 - 7.6 Volts. If those readings are within specs, check the voltage at the gauge, it should be very close to the above readings, under the same conditions Tom sarahcecelia 06-23-2019 @ 4:31 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1171 Joined: Mar 2013 Those headlights should brighten when you rev it up! I had a problem with my system-The gauge wouldn't go quite to green. Took it to an old guy that was told was really good!- He had a set up with an electric motor would spin the generator, and he had my regulator hooked up to the system. He said that all was good, but the regulator was a little "iffy." I bought a new one, tested by him, from him. He said that now the system was putting out to specs. Still had a bad reading on the gauge? I told myself- It's got to be the gauge! Went on E bay- found a NOS deluxe gauge for about $40!, installed it and.. Read in the green!! Your problem is OUT PUT from the generator, or the regulator is BAD, or needs to be ADJUSTED by an expert generator man!!The headlights don't brighten because they are not getting enough power to them when you rev the motor!! They should get over 6 volts at that point, and they aren't. Regards, Steve Lee fortyford 06-23-2019 @ 5:23 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 206 Joined: Nov 2009 Thanks Steve,that is what I thought about the lights not getting brighter.I got the generator off and taking to shop tomorrow to get checked.It is really smooth when I rotate the pulley and the brushes appear to be good just looking through the slots.Does the stock generator just have two brushes?Thanks Tom,I don't think I ever seen the voltage get up 7 or so.The last time I checked that it seems like the voltage got up to like 6.41 with the engine reved? This message was edited by fortyford on 6-23-19 @ 5:26 PM TomO 06-24-2019 @ 7:16 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7243 Joined: Oct 2009 If your voltage is only getting up to 6.4V with the engine at around 1,500 RPMs, your voltage regulator is not working. Because you said that you have a new regulator, the first thing I would check is that it is grounded. The original regulator has a grounding strap between the lower right hand bolt and a tab that is connected to the base of the regulator. The aftermarket regulators ground through the screws holding the regulator to the firewall. To use a meter to check grounding, connect the + lead of the meter to the generator through bolt and the COM meter lead to the regulator base. Set the meter to the lowest scale. With the engine running at 1,500 RPM, the volt meter should read zero V. If you have a reading , you will need to make sure that the generator is making good contact with the intake, the grounding strap from the intake to the firewall is making good contact and the regulator base to the firewall is making good contact. Tom fortyford 06-24-2019 @ 12:48 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 206 Joined: Nov 2009 Well they said the generator is working properly and I installed it back on and polarized the regulator(I did not know if I needed to or not?)Tom,I checked at the battery again at fast idle I am getting about 7.10 volts on the meter.I did try to check if I was doing it right the generator and the regulator base and I keep getting something like .15-.20 voltage???During all of this my car would not crank one time and discovered no fire to plug wires?I noticed with switch on my gauges were not moving so I tapped on switch block with screw driver and they started moving??I did clean the switch block a while back.Could it be worn out causing these problems?For some reason I got fire back and car is cranking again.

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