48 Chief charging problem - help!

[pninaud]

Hello, my 1948 chief has a stock 6volt system with an original indian generator and 2-stage voltage regulator. The battery is going dead. Here are the particulars.
New indian replica battery charged to 6 volts on tricke-charger.
New generator belt, tightened.
The generator and voltage reg are used original items, that have worked fine for the last few years.
My problem is the red charging light in the dash does not go off when you rev the motor. I put a volt-meter on the battery and turn the lights on and it reads 5.5 volts. Rev the motor and it stays at 5.5 volts. Ride the bike around and eventualy the battery goes flat. I tried pushing the 3rd brush back to increase the charging rate and it stays the same. Any systematic trouble shooting advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much, Patrice Ninaud - Austin, TX.

[Perry Ruiter]

On this regulator the armature terminal and the idiot light terminal are essentially one and the same. This means the light grounds through the armature. If the light never goes out it means no voltage is being induced in the armature. This could be a regulator or a generator problem. The regulator is responsible for grounding the field coils, either directly or through the carbon bar resistor on the side. If the field coils are not being grounded then there is no magnetic field created for the armature to cut through. Check your carbon bar hasn't broken. If you're feeling adventuous remove the regulator and ground the field coil lead (might be able to jumper it with the regulator still in place). Do you have voltage now when rev'ed? If yes, it's a regulator problem, if no it's a generator problem ... Perry

[pninaud]

Thank you Perry, I will give it try and post the results shortly. I really think these forums are great!

[pninaud]

Got the Chief Charging

Hello Perry,
Our problems were many:
1. The movable brush was not making contact
2. the generator belt was loose
3. the $100 repro-battery won't stay charged

I have some questions:
The generator brushes have 6,000 miles on them. It looks like the movable brush is close to bottoming out - maybe its too short now? How long will brushes last?

When the generator is under load (the belt still slips, make whining sound) how tight should the belt be?

We purchased an exact repop battery (made in India) and it is allready cracking and it went flat right after being charged. We put the trusty Yasua battery in and the lights are bright.

What we have now is: 6.0 volts when bike is off. 6.28 when running with light off, and 5.8 volts with light on. Any advice for preparing the charging system for the Tejas national road run would be appreciated. Thank you!

[Perry Ruiter]

First, the movable (third) brush must be in contact with the commutator. One end of the field coil pair is connected to it. If it's not in contact then there is no voltage passing through the field coils and hence induced magnetic field from the field coils and no output. Given you now have output I trust this is resolved. Second, I would expect brushes to typically last longer than 6,000 miles but the Harley service manual recommends checking generator brushes at 5,000 mile intervals, so presumably anything over 5,000 miles is a bonus. Third, I've never owned a Chief so can't comment on the proper tension for the generator belt, but I'd think just tight with no appreciable slack would be correct. If the belt is slipping when properly tensioned it may be worn out. Try a belt dressing on it. I can recommend Gasgacinch (it got the washing machine pumping out the drain rather than onto the floor until I could replace the drive belt in it). Finally, the voltage sounds a bit low. I trust these reading were taken at idle and are higher when RPM is increased ... Perry