Ford 3000 Charge Light Staying on

[Craigschme]

Hi. I have a Ford 3000 and recently, the charge light stays on when I start it. It will eventually go out, but it is taking longer each time and I have to increase the RPMs to almost wide open now. The tractor starts fine and runs fine. Is the generator going out?

Thanks for any help I can get

 

[Jerry/MT]

Hi. I have a Ford 3000 and recently, the charge light stays on when I start it. It will eventually go out, but it is taking longer each time and I have to increase the RPMs to almost wide open now. The tractor starts fine and runs fine. Is the generator going out?

Thanks for any help I can get

Could be your battery is on it's last legs, or your voltage regulator, or your generator or all three. it could be your starter draw is excessive so it takes longer to charge the battery. You need to do some diagnostics to sort this out.

 

[Texasmark]

I'd opt for worn brushes if you haven't visited the charging system in the last 10 years. My 3000 just got it's first set of brushes on a replacement generator after about a thousand hours, off ebay. The regulator is still OEM.

Battery problem would be sulphate and that would amount to internal resistance in the battery which is in series with the charge/discharge current. It'll make for a faster "apparent" charge and shut your light off faster but would result in less storage energy when the battery told the regulator it was full.

 

[boggen]

if you have a "generator" and not an "alternator" on tractor. do you need to "meh" forget the term. run a wire between battery and F terminal on generator. when ever you disconnect battery? if you do not not do this on old systems, the generator may not have correct charging.

to OP (original poster) wait for others to respond.