Well thanks to a lot of advice the 1926 is running and almost ready to go. Last pieces of work are the generator. I installed all new wiring harnesses. The ammeter registers no charge. Therefore either the ammeter is broken or the generator is not producing a charge. I have the MTFCA electrical book coming.
I have read to clean the commutator clean with emery paper, and clean out the groves. This will be done today (see picture appears to be non clean commutator)
I did jump the cut out with no result.
Question can I measure generator output at the yellow output wire to the right of the cut out to see if the generator is OK or at the battery and therefore the ammeter is bad if I register a charge above ? volts ? ?
Have I hooked up the yellow wire correctly at the cut out ?
A better picture
The yellow wire is in the right place. If you have a 10 amp ammeter, you would put it in series with the yellow wire. That is disconnect the yellow wire, install one lead of the ammeter to the cutout terminal and the other lead to the yellow wire. You should see current flow at an engine speed more than idle. If the ammeter needle doesn't read up scale (backwards, less than zero), reverse the ammeter leads. Your generator looks rather typical of aged generators and mostly likely needs quite a bit of work to run correctly. A good cleaning mostly likely will not get it to work. I'd suggest that you take it all apart and inspect everything. You could have shorts in the brush rigging, field coils and/or the armature. To get a good reliable generator, take the time to do it right, (cutting the commuter, new bearings, brush insulators, etc.) or you will be disappointed.
First things to check. Measure output from generator terminal, not from cutout. Use a voltmeter from output terminal and ground. If the cutout is not working you will get no output at the cutout terminal. Your commutator looks dirty and burnt. Take a pencil eraser and run over the commutator while the generator is turning. Next check all the brushes for good contact with the commutator. If they are very worn, you will see some arcing. The arcing will cause the burnt appearance at the commutator. Next check all electrical connections between the leads inside the generator and the brushes. I had one recently which did not charge because one of the screws was loose at one of the brushes. I tightened and the generator now works fine. Sometimes cleaning the commutator and replacing the brushes will fix your generator, but if it doesn't, you will need to rebuild the generator.
If the above doesn't fix the generator output, the last step is to replace the cutout. If replacing the cutout doesn't fix your problem, you need to remove the generator and rebuild it or replace it with a rebuilt one.
Good luck,
Norm
Generators are HEAVY make sure you are in a comfortable position and have a good grip on things when you go to lift it out....or you could join the busted knuckle club like me!
"I have read to clean the commutator clean with emery paper"
DON'T use emery paper, use sand paper instead, the cheap stuff.
One thing i did that brought my generator to life, was spraying the com with contact cleaner after cleaning with a light com stone.
Emery is a gift that KEEPS ON GIVING and that is not what you want. Heed Ken's good advice above.
Thank you for the advice. I cleaned the commutator to a bright shine while the engine was running with a pencil erasure. Now still a bit confused. With key on and engine OFF and I turn the headlights ON the needle on the ammeter moves 10 amps to the RIGHT when I run the engine, lights off, the ammeter needle moves 10 amps to the LEFT. With engine running and turn lights ON the needle moves to neutral. This shows me the ammeter is working (good) just i am used to seeing the needle move to the RIGHT when a charge is good from the generator.
David,
Reverse the wires on the back of your ammeter and it will read correctly.
If that generator works o.k. for you, which it now seems to be, then that's great. However, in the meanwhile, I would send one out for rebuild. That one very tired and very neglected.
"That one [looks] very tired and very neglected."