New Member here with some Ford 3000 over-charging problems

lidsvil · Mar 24, 2014

My name is Dave and I am having an overcharging problem with my neighbor's Ford 3000 3 cyl gas tractor. It is a 1965 Ford 3000 with Lucas type generator and we have done everything the incredibly smart Soundguy has advised for other members in other posts that I can find. In fact, in frustration my neighbor had the genny rebuilt because we thought it was grounded out internally (a last resort) which the rebuilder guy said it was. Installed rebuilt genny with same result, charging 18-19 volts at 3/4 RPM. We have tried 2 new Voltage Regulators with no success and now have a brand new genny on it (again neighbor's frustration) with the same 19 volt result. We have also removed every known wire (one at a time) and ran jumpers to check for any shorts and nothing helps (we suspected a shorted out or grounded wire). Battery is new and tests perfectly charged, etc. We removed the field wire from reg and ran that test on all regs, but both regs were not the issue. We have grounded the voltage reg with great overkill and no change. We have totally unhooked dash for a short but no change. What are we missing for God's sake. I am not the mechanic (he is) but I am the internet "find the possible solution" guy so please bear with my above descriptions regarding what he has done so far. All test have been performed with proper electrical equipment as this tractor only has a light on the dash. We are not relying on any gauges of the tractor itself, but expensive equipment. Help! Dave

deerseeker001 · Mar 24, 2014

Welcome from Wisconsin

mguitas · Mar 25, 2014

:welcome:

Briana03 · Mar 26, 2014

Welcome to TractorByNet!

I moved your thread to the Ford/New Holland Owning & Operating forum.

Soundguy · Mar 26, 2014

I'm doubting your voltage readings.

NO WAY you are getting 19v reading at the battery. the amperage needed to push the battery voltage to 19v at the battery is many many times more than that 20-25a lucas is capable of.

My BET is you have a cheap meter with a VERY low sampling rate and it is being bothered by brush noise. I see it all the time.

If bat potential was 19v on a 12v battery it would smoke very very quickly.

In any event. with engine running, disconnect field wire at reg and genny. make up a jumper field wire. and hook it up.

use an inline ammeter.. what is the charge current?

I'm not buying 19v charge at the battery.

what I would buy is an open cutout and you are measuring 19v on the unloaded armature... I'd buy that for sure.

lidsvil · Mar 26, 2014

Thanks for replying Soundguy. I will pass this along tonight to the owner and let him know what to try. As an aside, this thing smoked a huge tractor battery (one that fills up the entire length of the battery tray) pretty quickly when the problem was first detected. This being said, I am not doubting the truth of anything you said in your post, just so we are clear.

In addition, I am far from an expert. Dave

Soundguy · Mar 26, 2014

that machine would use a 4dlt

While long term overcharge will kill the battery for sure.. I doubt the capability of a lucas to charge 19v into a 4dlt for long enough at one settingto hurt the battery... though I do think it would smoke the genny or the reg.. the reg is the weaker of the 2 links though should be current limited around 20-25a.. and even at that.. thermal issues will result pretty quickly in the gen at much over 240w for any extended length of time... as in minutes to hour or less.