Hummer electrical troubles

[Paps]

Hi Fellows,
I need some schooling here. A friend of mine is having difficulty trouble shooting his hummers 6 volt electrical system. He had freshly restored the scooter only a little over a year ago and all worked well up until recently. He thinks his problem may be the regulator but has no clue on how to test it. I have always hated working on trouble shooting these components myself so I haven't been much help to him. Could anyone explain to me how to test the regulator and generator by using a volt/olm meter. Is this the proper tool to use? If so, what leads are tested using what leads of the volt/olm meter? His headlamp now almost immeadiately drains on the battery all the way to engine stall. If he turns the lights off he has enough battery to get it home. All help is appreciated and thanks in advance for all responces. Paps

[Perry Ruiter]

Hummer has come to be used as a generic term for the american made Harley lightweights, but in fact the offical hummer had a magneto ignition and no battery. So ... I assume your buddy has either a 125 or a 165. A couple different generators were used (two brush and four brush) and three different regulators were used over that period (with two different test procedures). If it's a real Delco Remy regulator it should have a part number stamped on one of the mounting ears. Given that I can scan and post the Delco test procedure for that regulator. However, it doesn't sound like a regulator problem to me. Given the rapid discharge of the battery it almost sounds like a short in the headlight circuit. A simple test is just to verify the generator and regulator are somewhat working is to put the voltmeter across the battery posts with the bike running and lights off. Rev it a bit and you should be in the 7.5-8.0 volt range ... Perry

[Paps]

Thanks for your responce Perry. He owns a 165 with a 4 brush generator and it does have a new original Delco regulator on it. Your post on how to test it would be much appreciated. You can email it to me too if you would like. Send it to:
[ vtwinrebuild@yahoo.com ]. I spoke with him today about your responce and he informed me that it also slowly died during daylight hours without his lighting lit up. His bike has a built in volt meter and reads a contant 6 to 7 volts until a few hours of riding and then it begins to read 4 to 5 volts after it is hot. He said he pulled the cover off of the regulator and the contacts had carbon on them. He doesn't know what to gap them at either. I told him what you said about a generator test but I haven't heard back from him on that yet. Paps

[Perry Ruiter]

OK sent you a scan from the 165/Hummer service manual on how to determine whether you have a regulator or generator problem. If you have a regulator problem I'll scan the Delco regulator bulletin. If you have a generator problem I'll scan the generator section of the service manual ... Perry

[Paps]

Thanks again Perry. Please scan and send all you can that will help. This would allow him to check the whole system at once and resolve the problem sooner. He has already went over all his wiring and no dead grounds have been found. Everything is in good order in this respect. Paps

[Perry Ruiter]

I had a bit of a cold today, so rather than go out to the shop I scanned the Delco-Remy service bulletins that cover the regulators used by Harley in the 50's and early 60's. They're in the PDF section of my website at:
http://www.ruiter.ca/mc/info/PDFs/
The correct one for your buddy's 165 is 1R-116. Hope this helps ... Perry

[Paps]

Thanks Perry,
I was able to fix my adobe reader and download the data. Great info!! Paps

[Paps]

Hey Perry, My buddy checked out his whole electrical system and it seems to be at the generator. This generator is a 4 brush type. Do you happen to have a copy of the delco remy service bulletin number 1G-150 ?? Paps

[Perry Ruiter]

Paps - I do have that bulletin but it's in a bound manual and so not easy to scan. It's focus is GM auto generators so I don't think your buddy would find it helpful (from another site I found this URL:
http://1946_54chevys.250free.com/dr324.htm
which implies it has the whole manual available (if you can ever get there when it's below it's limit)). I can scan the generator section of the 165 service manual, which is probably better than 1G-150 for your buddy, but it will be a couple of weeks before I can get that done ... Perry

[Perry Ruiter]

OK - I took scans from an original 1960 factory service manual and made a PDF of the 165 generator and Hummer magneto repair section. This is now available from my website:
http://www.ruiter.ca/mc/info/PDFs/index.html
Good luck ... Perry

[Paps]

Thanks Perry. Excellent info. I saved it for my buddy and will get it to him asap. Paps