Can anyone advise where I can purchase a new voltage regulator for my truck? I have a 235 6 cyl (1955-1957) in my 1951 1/2 ton with a 12 volt generator and 12 volt regulator. It just quit charging according to the ampmeter. Some initial tests might indicate the regulator is at fault. The regulator has the following on the cover: 'United Technologies Electro Systems, Type RCS 12H 115 12 Volt, for Neg or Pos GND and has 3 wire connections (BAT GEN FLD). Also to Nate and others, I did not have the ability to receive 'private' messages in the past (not sure why). Today when I logged on, there were several from last year. Sorry for not responding. Thanks Penniwinkle
My advice, Stop! Back away from the truck. Have a cold adult beverage of your choosing. Wait for Nate. Sorry, that is the best I can do. Gater
Go to your FLAPS and order up a voltage regulator for a 1958 Chevy truck. They were 12 volts in that year and used a generator as well. Standard Motor Products part number VR22. Everybody carries that brand. Andy
Just so ; Ask for 1959 Chevy truck or passenger car generator and voltage regulator . When you install it , disconnect eh bettery _ground_ cable , VERY important ! All done ? lightly touch the cable to the battery post , if you see any spark , no matter how small , STOP and re-check your work . DO NOT " polarize " it unless if doesn;t charge ! . gotta go , will check back later.
Ha Nate when you come back. Did we not have a simple test for the regulator when using 12 volt system? I thought I had seen one in a older post but could not find it in searching. Hate to see a new regulator installed to find out it is something else.
Generator Testing Sure : disconnect the gennie and attach a voltimiter to the " Gen." or " Arm." terminal and start the engine , let it idle ~ if it shows any charge , gently rev. the engine and stop if the voltage exceeds 18 volts . No charge ? that's fine , now run a jumper from the battery hot terminal to the " Field " terminal on the gennie , this will always be the thinner post . it should show some charge now , if not rev. it slowly ~ DO NOT rev. the snot out of it trying to make it charge ~ either it'll begin to charge right off idle or not . If it shows a charge and you let it go up to 20 volts (or more) it'll burn the gennie out in under 5 seconds so pay attention and don't use your spiffy digital meter ~ find and use , an analog (dial) meter . if the gennie charges , just check the wires leading from it to the regulator , often the terminals are barely hanging on . They're O.K. ? check the back of the ammeter for loose nuts , if you find 'em loose , wire brush the ammeter studs all shiny before replacing the wires and DON'T mix 'em up ! do one post at a time , I always replace the nuts with new brass ones . Still no charge ? time for a new regulator , I don't know how to teach you to fix the old ones , it's tricky and easy to screw it up and make it burn out the gennie . If no generator charge , take it off and look in the business end , if the black carbon brushes are less than 3/4" long , you can gamble at replacing them , they're cheap and this fixes 2/3rds of them and if you goof and kill it , you can still turn it in as a core when you order up a rebuilt one . I highly suggest you -not- use rebuilt voltage regulators ~ If you get a nice new one from NAPA and it works , take it back off and carefully drill out the rivets holding on the cover and replace that with your old Delco-Remy stamped cover . I hope this helps and I didn't forget anything , 1st. cuppa is still taking affect .
Hey Nate, There wouldn't be a problem with the gennie if I didn't have it connected at all when I start my engine for the first time, right? Only burn-out problems if it is connected as per your last post, right? Andy
Wait! WAIT! Read this before starting! It is from the TF GMC manual, but I'm sure it applies to all generator based systems.
Thanks Bill, I THOUGHT I remembered something like that from my past. Last generator car I had was over 30 years ago. Only damage to the regulator though, right? I can start the engine with no regulator attached and no wires on the gennie. I am just going to jump the coil from the battery as the wiring harness is not in place. Running the gennie with nothing attached to it shouldn't damage it, right? Just make sure to polarize the gennie so the regulator doesn't burn out when the harness is finally in. Thanks again, Andy
Hmm, interesting. Sorry about that. I wonder if those messages were sent on the old forums (which we moved away from about this time last year). I increased the maximum number of private messages that each user can store a few days ago, so maybe that triggered the delivery of those messages for some reason. Out of curiosity, and to help determine if there's still a problem, do you know if any or all of the messages showed as being sent on or after July 24th, 2006?
12 volt generator~ Hey Andy, I guess that's how I'll be moving to a 12 volt system, also. Sooo, this has been a great thread! Thanks, Bill for posting that little piece that was worth the cost of a rebuilt generator!!! Question~ (I think I know the answer to this, but because my $$ account likes to travel light, I gotta ask...) Can a good, *used* 12 volt generator still be found? Okay, this is where ya' all quit laughing and dry your tears. I just got back from NAPA, they can get a rebuilt for $204.00, and a regulator for $60 or maybe more... I just plunked down $25 on my paint job. 2 cans of etching primer, 2 cans of white, one can of gold. Oh yeah, baby! I said GOLD! (don't worry, just a small accent piece for under the hood...) Thanks for all the advice so far, and all that is yet to come! Boy~ looking at those old leafs blown apart- New lowered springs are making a case for ANY additional cash I might be able to come up with. It'd be a slight &*%$# to swap them out later when my truck's all back together.
Hey Zig, Yeah, Bill's little gift certainly beats burned out gennies or regulators. My engine is a '58 and got it for free from that great guy in Maryland. Came complete from radiator fan to tailshaft of tranny. Had the 12V gennie on it already. I'm pretty sure that you can have your 6V unit rebuilt to 12V, just gotta tell the rebuilder to do so. Remember, you can use your 6V starter on a 12V system. I think having your own gennie rebuilt will prolly be a lot cheaper than buying a rebuilt one from the FLAPS. Find a rebuilder in the yellow pages and bring it to them yourself instead of the FLAPS doing it. Cut out the middle man and leave some more in your pocket. Andy
Great idea~ I'm all for saving money! (as long as the end results are good, of course) Did you get your regulator taken care of?
Hey Zig, You betcha. That little gem is certainly worth not burning out a gennie or regulator. I believe you can have your 6V gennie rebuilt to 12V. All you gotta do is talk to your rebuilder. Find one in the yellow pages and bring it to them yourself. Cuts out the middle man and saves you some sheckles. One of my favorite little money saving tricks. As per Nate, you can use your 6V starter on the 12V system with no probs. Andy oops. Ever since CP "fixed" the forum, weird things have been happening when I post. didn't think my last post went through, so I did it again (sounds like a song title)
Saving money?? You splurged on paint then you want to preach to us about saving money? What's the gold paint for? A feeble attempt at making a jimmy purdy?
Zig, I had no probs with my regulator, just remembered somewhere in the back of my mind (among all that funny smelling smoke from years ago) about gennies and regulators burning out. As far as your paint job is concerned, I'm gonna make you proud. I found the original supplier to the people that built the Old Navy trucks in my area. They are mailing me a spray-out sample of the color to see if it matches. If it does, I'm going to buy the paint from them in...wait for it... Rattle Cans Andy
Zig, I'll sell you a rebuilt gennie NAPA wants too much for that. I'll sell you one for $175. If you want it, it may take a few days because I'll have to order it from CP first. Oh heck, let's cut out the middle man. Get it direct from CP. They have both 6v and 12v and sell them for $134.95.
What the...? How the...? I looked through CP's catalog just for that reason! (I guess I looked about as hard as I did that one day when I was looking for my glasses~ and they were on my face~ and no, I hadn't a drop of wine to drink!) I'll still see about the revolting. It's been a part of my truck since the day it twer born, so I'll see about it. Andy~ Did you get a new regulator, or is it the original? RATTLE CANS???? Again~ These are REAL TEARS! I'm so proud of you, Andy! I'd almost say I was sorry about giving you such a hard time about "grilling"... almost! Ken, the gold will be used on the latch part under the hood. Just 'cuz my custom paint job/pattern puts me in a jamb under there. Black would be to predictable. Gold kinda' personifies my feelings about my truck, ya know?
