Polarizing My Generator

[cccchevy]

Finally got my 60 Elco back from paint and have been putting it back together the last couple weeks. Started it and moved on its own power yesterday! My question is, how do I polarize the generator. I have rebuilt it, now the GEN light it staying on. I feel embarrassed asking this question, I've been an ASE certified technician now for 14 years, but when it comes to generators, points, and some carb stuff, I'm clueless! I love the old school, but know the new school!
Thanks for any help!

 

[rstreet]

To polarize a generator touch quickly a jumper from the BAT to the GEN terminals of the regulator. I hope this helps. If it doesn't work motor the generator to check everything else

 

[Ronnie Russell]

cccc,,,,,,,,, If polarizing does not help,,,, a bad ground at the gen. light in the dash will keep the bulb on, even if the generator is functioning.

 

[58impala]

If I remember correctly, polarizing a generator by "Flashing" the bat to gen terminal should be done with the engine Not Running. Not always required after rebuilding the unit, depends on what parts are replaced, but sometimes necessary for the gen to function correctly.

 

[cccchevy]

Thanks for all your help guys! It was an installer error(ME!). Had wires on gen swapped! Works great now!

 

[rstreet]

Thanks for all your help guys! It was an installer error(ME!). Had wires on gen swapped! Works great now!

good thing that wire "modification" wasn't on a new car or the results could have been very expensive as you know by being a current ASE tech. glad you're back on the road
Robert

 

[blumun53]

Each time I've ever performed this kind of procedure, I would always remove the generator belt first. An old-timer told me to do that so the generator pulley could turn freely when I jumped the terminals. Twice, when I replaced a generator, the pulley turned. The other times it did not. When I asked about this phenomenon, I was told that the later rebuilt gens did not have to be polarized, as it had already been done in the rebuilding process. Probably because so many newly purchased rebuilt units were being returned as 'bad', when they actually were not.
I remember doing the polarization thing once, and I think I must have crossed the wrong terminals, 'cause I immediately burned up my regulator and a portion of the wiring, and my right thumb and forefinger prints when I grabbed the wires to disconnect them so they would quit burning. It's important to keep the smoke INSIDE the wires, you know. (Ha ha) This happened outside St Louis, Missouri, in my 59 Impala, on my way to Marquette, Michigan, from Denton, Texas. I threw a generator at about 85 mph.
Does this help? Or confuse? Either way, I've enjoyed writing this reply.

 

[rstreet]

blumun53...OUCH!!! I cringed when I read your post about your fingers. Amazing the power behind 12 volts!! I guess if we see your modified finger prints on a CSI show we should recognize you right away
Robert

 

[bubbletop1961]

I've been an ASE certified technician now for 14 years, but when it comes to generators, points, and some carb stuff, I'm clueless! I love the old school, but know the new school!
Thanks for any help!

Dont you just plug the scanner into the port under the dash???





Just kidding, I couldnt resist.

 

[MRHP]

Marquette Michigan is an hour from me. Were you lost or sumthin' Blumun53? I can't think why anyone would come here on purpose! We are in the middle of nowhere and nothing.

 

[blumun53]

Hey, MHRP, my father was stationed at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, just outside Marquette, and I was going up to visit my family. This was in 1971, and back then, on the way, you were required to drive close by Lambeau Field in Green Bay (for those who don't know, that's where the Packers play). My 59 was green and yellow, the Packers' colors, and it started pulling real hard to the left as I drove by. It almost got sucked into the stadium. Must have mistaken my car for a defensive lineman or sometin'. But after I got past the stadium, it straightened right up. I swear it's true. I believe it, even if nobody else does. (I think)

 

[Ronnie Russell]

" We are in the middle of nowhere and nothing"... Sounds like a place I would like.

 

[MRHP]

K.I. is now an airport. Just a big pile of nothing. You learn to appreciate the summer month-August- because we have gotten snow in every other month! That is what the old timers say. :

 

[blumun53]

Ya know, after driving around in that area some while I was there, I now know where all those artists go to paint the beautiful fall pictures you see in magazines, or hanging in waiting rooms, or on postcards. I've never seen anything like it. When up on a high area, you can look over the countryside and adjacent hillsides, and just gaze in wonderment at how anything can look so fabulous! Red, orange, yellow, green combinations to wow even the most unmovable heart, or the unpenetrable sentiment to realize what geographical beauty really is. That being said, after it snowed on the 1st of October that year, I proceeded to hop in my '59 and scoot right back down here. If Texas is God's country, then surely the hills of the UP are angels' nests.

 

[raymar58409]

Ronnie Russel

"Nowhere and nothing a place you'd like"

Sounds more to me like where you already are.
Ray