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I did not restore the generator or replace the
regulator as part of the planned restoration work.
Since the bike was not in running condition when I got it, I did
not know what condition the charging system was in. However, since the bike appeared to have been taken out of
service due to other problems (bad rod bearings, bad wiring to name a
few), I had high hopes that the charging system would work. No such luck. After getting the bike started, the first thing I
did was ride it down the street and back.
I noted that the generator light worked, because it lit up when I
engaged the ignition. I
also noted that the light did not go out when engine speed increased. |
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| The generator was putting out voltage, but the regulator was not limiting the output. The generator was putting out as much as 9.0 volts at the (51) terminal. I cleaned the contacts on the original regulator, but with no results, so I replaced the original mechanical regulator with an electronic 6-volt unit. The picture below is of the old unit. It is actually very difficult to access the regulator on top of the engine unless because you have a limited amount of space between the fuel tank and the top of the engine casing. |
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| The electronic regulator on the left is a unit I got from Vech at Bench Mark Works. It is an adjustable unit intended for R51/3 and later machines. Vech installed this unit on Elaine’s R51/2, but he had to adjust the output after installation. He also managed to get the generator light to work as well. The unit on the right is a unit from Huggett for pre-war through R51/2 machines. It is not adjustable. I opted to install the pre-war unit. It seems to work fine, but I can’t figure out how to connect my generator light with this unit. If anyone has figured this out, please let me know. By the way, the directions for the pre-war unit say to secure the brown ground wire to the (-) brush, but I secured it to one of the two screws holding the regulator to the generator body because it would not reach the brush. |