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Man In Black

Testing voltage regulator/ rectifier

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Man In Black

I have a Wheel Horse 8 hp  C-81 tractor which was working fine and then it started making noise around the flywheel and smoke started coming from that area and from the stator wires melting all the way up to the dash and to the regulator , melting the regulator connector at the battery wire. It was caused by the flywheel magnets coming loose in pieces and shorting . I bought a good used flywheel on ebay and a new stator but I don't know if the shorting has damaged the regulator .  I also have another used regulator , condition unknown but don't know how to test them . Can there be any damage to the rest of the electrical system if I plug them on to try them ?

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ebinmaine

I am by No Means an electrical expert but the very first thing that comes to mind is that maybe your ammeter shorted out and actually was the cause of the problem in the first place?

 

Others will be along to answer the question and give better diagnosis.

 

 

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Tractorhead

If only the Coil is defect, the Regulator shall be still fine.

Get a simple voltmeter.

 

hook it on battery an read the Voltage.

It shall be someting about 12,5 -12,8 Volts.

start the Engine, the Voltage should come up to something about 13,8 - 14V.

in the upper case everything is fine.

 

if the Voltage exeeds 15V, your regulator is defect and works not properly (cause damage of battery)

Same if the Voltage does not reach the 13v at least.

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Man In Black
14 minutes ago, Tractorhead said:

If only the Coil is defect, the Regulator shall be still fine.

Get a simple voltmeter.

 

hook it on battery an read the Voltage.

It shall be someting about 12,5 -12,8 Volts.

start the Engine, the Voltage should come up to something about 13,8 - 14V.

in the upper case everything is fine.

 

if the Voltage exeeds 15V, your regulator is defect and works not properly (cause damage of battery)

Same if the Voltage does not reach the 13v at least.     Thanks ,    I wasn't thinking on terms of the coil being bad because it didn't overheat or have any burned wires . So you are saying that I should make sure the coil is good before testing the regulator. Is there any chance any of these tests will burn out the new stator if the other parts are defective ?

 

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Tractorhead

Normally no,

the Strator is a coil, what changes moving magnets to Voltage.

 

the first stage in the regulator will be a diode cascade.

If it's short, the Strator works on its limit and getting in case of longer tests (more as 10 min.) hot.

only if the strator is to long under short, it can get to hot, this causes mostly in loosing insulation within the coils.

 

a short running test for 2 min with a continouse short, should not make any troubles, otherwise the strator was bad quality.

 

Remove the regulator from the Strator,

get the Voltmeter to AC and do a measurement with running engine.

the Voltage should be about 18-25Volts 

 

get a simple Truck bulb 24V, and connect it only on Strator Wires.

If engine runs, the bulb will light up -  this test causes, the Strator is fine and it delivers current.

 

after that connect the regulator and do a measurement in DC Voltage.

The measurement i described before.

 

A Voltage regulator can damage without burnig Wires - a still dead.

no voltage is measured at all, but strator is fine.

 

Edited by Tractorhead
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Man In Black
27 minutes ago, Tractorhead said:

Normally no,

the Strator is a coil, what changes moving magnets to Voltage.

 

the first stage in the regulator will be a diode cascade.

If it's short, the Strator works on its limit and getting in case of longer tests (more as 10 min.) hot.

only if the strator is to long under short, it can get to hot, this causes mostly in loosing insulation within the coils.

 

a short running test for 2 min with a continouse short, should not make any troubles, otherwise the strator was bad quality.

 

Remove the regulator from the Strator,

get the Voltmeter to AC and do a measurement with running engine.

the Voltage should be about 18-25Volts 

 

get a simple Truck bulb 24V, and connect it only on Strator Wires.

If engine runs, the bulb will light up -  this test causes, the Strator is fine and it delivers current.

 

after that connect the regulator and do a measurement in DC Voltage.

The measurement i described before.

 

A Voltage regulator can damage without burnig Wires - a still dead.

no voltage is measured at all, but strator is fine.              Thank You , That should help .

 

 

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