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24v jeep generator

3K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Henry Highrise 
#1 ·
Hey guys, my neighbor has a 1953 M38A1 Jeep. It uses a 24v electrical system, and everything is sealed for underwater usage. The voltage regulator box is external mounted, but the system is not charging. There is a bulkhead connector that screws water tight which goes from the back of the generator to the regulator. Inside this connector are 3 pins, we put my DMM on the back of the generator to try to get some sort of reading, not knowing what each pin was suppose to read, we tried every combination we could think of from using the casing and each pin as a possible ground. This was done while the jeep was running and tried at different RPM's. We got nothing from any of the combinations, every once in a while it might read 3.5v, nothing close to the 24-28 as stated on the casing. There is a tag saying it was rebuilt in 1975, but it spun freely with the belt off with no squeaking, or any hard resistance while turning. So, we took it out and pulled the the guts out of the casing, all of the connections of the wires looked to be connected securely, not corroded up real bad or anything, the burshes had lots of material on them, but a bit glazed. We scuffed them up, maybe thinking that might help. Still, after reassembly, nothing seemed to work. It looked to be a very simple unit with no capacitor or anything on there, just the windings, armature and brushes, and the wires. It looks like it should work, putting out voltage all the time and the regulator doing all of the dirty work.

Does anybody have experience with any of these old jeep regulators or any 24v generator systems that are similar? Maybe there is a better train of thought and process of elemination that is eluding us? But so far, it looks like it's just the generator that does not work, and it "appears" as if it should.

Thanks guys!
 
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#3 ·
MISFITZ said:
ck for voltage at the field wire . this wire energizes the field coil to start charging you can full field the alternator bye applying voltage to this wire with a jumper . if you still have no output the alternator is shot probably stator or diodes

misfitz
He said it was a generator...not a alternator. I had one of those old Jeeps once with the 24V system....I changed it over to 12 volts because my generator went bad and the cost for a new one was way expensive....not to mention what a 24 V head light cost when and if I could find them.
 
#4 ·
they have a vintage jeep discussion board here.

I'll cut n' copy your text into a thread there and see what they have to say.
-Matt

link to Jeep thread

edit: switching to 12v would probably be an easy fix, I don't know if your friend is concerned with originality or not. 24v is for sure unique to run. I assume 2 12 volt batteries reside under the hood? (do they even make 24v auto batteries?)
 
#5 ·
Thanks for the replies, guys! I'll keep an eye on that thread created over at the jeeps board. He's not really that concerned whether or not it stays 24v, or gets converted to 12v, but he does want to retain the underwater capabilities of it's design, and that seems to be one of the main problems of switching to an alternator, finding one that's sealed. Oh, and on the batteries, it's just two 12v batteries in a series.
 
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