re-polarize my battery

[Mike in Mass]

Hello Gentleman, heres the back story 6 volt pos ground motor .I left my lights on and killed my battery yesterday. Jumped it and drove on the highhway figured it would charge up, no it didnt .,Gauge still showing negative . I talked to my buddy and he cant remember witch wires to touch to repolorize the generator . My voltage reg has ARM ,,FLD ,, BAT On the 3 wires coming out the bottom .Do I just undo the BAT and touch it to the ARM ? I dont want to fuck this up . And it seems like evertime I do ! when I do A search it dissapears as soon as I type

[WABOOM]

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[Kube]

Originally Posted by Mike in Mass

Hello Gentleman, heres the back story 6 volt pos ground motor .I left my lights on and killed my battery yesterday. Jumped it and drove on the highhway figured it would charge up, no it didnt .,Gauge still showing negative . I talked to my buddy and he cant remember witch wires to touch to repolorize the generator . My voltage reg has ARM ,,FLD ,, BAT On the 3 wires coming out the bottom .Do I just undo the BAT and touch it to the ARM ? I dont want to fuck this up . And it seems like evertime I do ! when I do A search it dissapears as soon as I type

Mike, Your generator will not recharge your battery all by itself. You will need to charge it (battery) with a 6v. charger.
To Polarize the generator touch the "arm' and "bat" terminals on your regulator with a piece of wire. All you want is a small spark and you're done.
There should be no reason to do this from what you've described.

[Mike in Mass]

THANKS Kube . Well my buddy thought that because I killed the battery completey the Generator "lost its way " So to speak . I had the battery dissconected and charging all day today on a 6 v charger . It fired right up. I just noticed that Im still not charging according to my gauge in the truck . but now I know who to touch, to who . I feel confident now. And have learned a new trick .thanks again for your time.Mike

[Paul Bennett]

At the voltage regulator, 'armature' may be labeled 'A' and 'battery' labeled 'B'. These terminals are next to each other, 'A' being in the middle and 'B' being to the right, facing the regulator which has terminal facing down. Engine off, a large screwdriver is an adequate tool to briefly touch the A and B terminals.

On the battery recharge, many recommend, especially with Optimas, to recharge the target battery with a similar voltage good battery placed in parallel. Parallel meaning connecting cables - battery to battery to charger, placed positive to positive and negative to negative.

I use a 12v charger for all charging, removing it periodically to measure voltage. The voltage you wish to see which indicates full charge is 6.3v, or 1.2 volts per cell. 6.2v is about 80% and where I often quit.

May your front story be more satisfying than your back story.

[Tinker]

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I use a oldish schumacher 6/12 volt changer. like the guy it's still preforming.

While running, if you disconnect the battery and the engine dies. The gen is not preforming or maybe the volt regulator, cutouts don't do this. Put a volt gauge on it.


Up till 38 flatheads could be started with a crank. Not sure the exact yr it stopped, close. But it means the gen ran the motor. Maybe the regulator changed that.

[Tinker]

....

[rotorwrench]

The old term was "flash the Field". Fords are different than some about the way they are polarized but all have the same basic principle. On the Ford specific, the F field wire, should be disconnected from the F terminal and momentarily touched to the B battery terminal (no more than 3 seconds). What this does is remagnitize the field pole shoes. The residual magnetism in those pole shoes is what gives the energy to make the cut out pole switch close and bring the generator on line once the engine is started.

It's a bit more complicated on the older 3 brush generators and some of the early 2-brush units but this procedure works for most of the two brush types of the flathead era as long as they have the three pole voltage regulator.

Definitley take the others' advice on charging the battery first. The generator only puts out around 30 to 35 amps depending on model. If it has to put out 20 to 25 amps to try and charge a dead battery then it will be very hard on battery and generator alike. It could also damage the voltage regulator. They don't mind recharging one that's run down a bit but a completely dead one is very risky.

Also be careful when jumping a 6-volt positive ground battery. 12-volt is not the way to go. It should be jumped with a 6-volt system with the same polarity.

[Andy]

Do you have an Optima battery? Apparenty they are screwy. I have been told they are difficult to recharge.
If it was charging before it will charge now. Just put it on charge and it will come back if it is still capable of taking a charge. It can take hours.

[drolston]

What is really annoying is that modern digital battery chargers will not charge a completely dead battery that is otherwise okay. Using the regular charge function, these battery chargers will give a fault that says the battery is failed and they shut off. Most of these units have a battery maintenance function. That function will put charge voltage even on a dead battery. Use that function for an hour or so to get the battery alive, and then switch to the regular charge function to complete the charge.

Wish I had not pitched my old Western Auto 6/12 volt trickle charger when I bought the new "too smart for it's own good" charger.

[Kurt in NJ]

It is possible to charge a dead battery backwards ---re polarize the battery ---check the battery with a meter ---it will cause screwy charging problems

the generator had no problem recharging the totally dead optima on my car

[Mike in Mass]

Hi Gentleman. no Optima battery. just an old style one that is 2 years old tops . .old type charger, 6 8 an 12 volts just flip the switch . Havent been home yet to,, flash the Ford,, yet .

[Mart]

Please note that 2 different methods have been quoted here, my understanding is that the "flash the field" method is correct for early Fords. The Arm terminal is not part of the polarisation process.

Mart

[flathead48]

A circuit, reg will read l- R , B A F, use a jumper from armature post to battery

B circuit, reg will read B F A, unhook field & touch to battery post quickly to polarize generator.

[Mike in Mass]

Oh boy ,,, so now I must have fried my voltage regulator. I did not disconnect the FIELD wire ,,,,and then proceeded to quickly touch the ARM to the BAT .I touched them with a wire 3 quick times,why 3 taps ,I dont know .Have I told you guys how qmany times I screw my truck up . Im a pro at Coils,3or 4 of those so far ,starter switches, 4 at least ,gen is rebuilt mint ,I gotta figure out if im A or B. I'll be back at it around 5pm , thanks and have a good day ☺

[Mart]

From the description above the Fords must be a B type, but the lettering depends on which way up it is. On my 41pu with the regulator bolted to the firewall with the terminals sticking down, the Arm is on the left, Field in the middle and Bat on the right.*

* That's as I look at it from the engine bay. In vehicle terms (as if viewed from the driver's seat), Arm is right(Pass side), field is still, amazingly in the middle, and Bat is to the left (drivers side).

US left hand drive parlance used.

I probably muddied the waters.

The terminals are clearly marked so there shouldn't be any room for confusion.

Mart.

[rotorwrench]

The A circuit type generators and previously mentioned in post #14, had the field grounded through the voltage regulator unit. There is a connection to armature on these so A to B jumper is used on the regulator for those.

The B circuit type generators have the field internally grounded so they require the F terminal wire be isolated from the regulator then touched to the battery terminal.

Ford used mostly B circuit types where GM used mostly A circuit types. This is where it pays to get a service manual for the type of vehicle you own so as to get the correct information for it.

Mike in Mas
There could have been something happen when you jumped the car to get it running initially but it depends on the circumstance and how it was carried out. It should have indicated a charge directly after the vehicle was started. A person generally only has to polarize after the replacement of a generator but it's not a bad idea to do it after a battery replacement too. A person can check the regulator for signs of damage and freedom of movement of the cut out relay (the pole that attaches to the battery terminal internally). The voltage regulator & current limiter points can also be checked for burning or crud build up. There is not much else a person can do without all the required test equipment to check for generator and regulator function. It gets expensive testing by part replacement. If you do, I'd start with the regulator. A person can check the generator but a separate ammeter would be needed connected in series with the field circuit. A person can also check for an open field circuit indicating a coil was burned in the generator somewhere. There can be armature problems as well but the unit would have to be disassembled to check it out properly.

[54vicky]

with all your screw ups with old cars.I think you should consider driving a prius or cube

[flathead48]

The important thing is the field is in the middle on B circuits and armature in the middle on A circuits .

[tubman]

I wonder; do they make solid state replacement regulators for old Fords? I was having problems getting a good replacement regulator for my Corvette (all the replacements from my FLAPS charged 16 to 18 volts - if you have ever replaced dash bulbs on a C2 Corvette you will know why that's not desirable). On the advice of other Corvette guys, I purchased a solid state replacement that worked perfectly. I just swapped the covers and it even looked right.