[TR] Stumped

Randall TR3driver at ca.rr.com
Wed Mar 16 16:40:43 MDT 2016


If it charged at all, then polarizing is not the issue.

My guess would be a bad connection or broken wire somewhere, which might be inside the generator or control box.  Grease or oil on
the VR contacts can also cause a problem.

As a side note, I discovered last year that the original control boxes rely on the contact between a brass sleeve and the center
bolt through the relay to ground the voltage coil (on both relays).  Just a little bit of dissimilar metal corrosion can interrupt
the connection.  My original box exhibited symptoms somewhat similar to those you describe; and checking my collection of 'bad'
control boxes, I found a couple more with the same problem.  Disassembling and cleaning, followed by the adjustment procedure of
course, seems to have fixed my problem.  Hasn't happened since.

There's a Lucas document at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2H2NJt34OffNTc3ODkwYzAtYjRlYS00NDNmLWI0YTYtNjY5ZjQxZTA2NGFm
Which gives a fairly simple troubleshooting procedure.  Of course, it only helps if the problem is happening when you do the tests.

However, since you are looking for a "no charge" condition; I might fold the first few tests together (since it's hard to get at the
wires on the generator) and start with test 4 of Part 1.  If you get the "pass" result there, you can go on to the tests in Part 2.
The "dry card" mentioned in Part 2 can be as simple as a piece of computer paper, torn into a 'C' shape so it will stay in the
contacts by itself.

-- Randall  



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