I am having problems charging my battery in my 1949 Cadillac Series 62.

Both the battery (6 volt) and the voltage regulator are new. The generator shows output of 6.5 volts, so all separate pieces seem to work. I am afraid the grounding is poor though.

Is there a way to 'jumper' directly from the 6 volt regulator to my battery and by pass the route to the starter in order to avoid poor grounding?

I want to improve the charge to my battery (from generator via the regulator) with a band-aid fix.

And if so from what prong on the regulator and with what gauge of wire do I directly hook to the battery?

Is the BAT prong the on the regulator for the hot lead to the pos. on the battery terminal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

On a generator the armature lead is the charging lead. The field (coil) lead should go to the F on the regulator. You need to polarize a new generator - touch a jumper cable from the battery + to the generator + output for a brief second. The third lead is the ignition ON lead and is used to excite the regulator. Run a 12 ga. ground wire from the firewall/voltage regulator base to the generator ground stud.

An alternator generates AC voltage in the field coils which is chopped to pulsating DC. A generator puts out a nice, noisy low sine wave sort of DC from the armature, therefore the heavy commutator/brush assembly which can carry more than 30A. 10 gauge stranded wire should be enough.

You sound as if the charging lead goes to the starter BATT stud. Not a problem if all the connections are clean.

Thanks for that. I don;t have a new generator, just the old one and wanted to improve the charge to the battery.

I have cabled (12 gauge) directly from the F on the gen. to the F on the reg. As well as a new cable from the A on the gen. to the A on the regulator.

I then put a new cable directly from the B on the reg to the pos cable on the battery (bypassing the starter which normally takes the B from the reg. then on to the battery).

I am not seeing any difference in charge though after I did this work around. Still shows 6.2 volts at the battery as well as the reg, and after the car warms up for 15 minutes, it drops to under 6. :hmm:

I had assumed by cabling new wires as I described above would solve the problem of possible corrosion or poor grounding, not to mention the ancient cables that exist in those places already (worn, torn)

Also, when you said ground stud on gen, where is that exactly? Where it is mounted to the block?

Where were you referring when you mentioned the third lead for the ON ignition?

Thanks again!

Some regulators require a 12V lead (IGN) for turn-on sensing. The ground lead could be made by the generator mount itself, but sometimes it takes a separate 12 ga. wire from the case itself to a ground at the regulator base - mounting bolt.

Are you sure the regulator is OK - as in - set correctly ? The charging voltage should be just over 7 volts or so. What happens to voltage when all the lights are on ? Does it ramp back to 6V +, or does it "droop" ? A modern solid-state 6V regulator might be found at NAPA.

What shape are the generator brushes and commutator in ?? Worn brushes or a commutator in which the segments are shorted by dust and brush material will NOT put out full voltage. Pull the armature and polish the commutator with crocus cloth (NOT emery or aluminum oxide paper). Undercut the segments (insulator) with a piece of broken off hacksaw blade - as in - clean out the dust/crap between the copper segments.