Generator Light
 

The other night coming home my generator light came on. I had to stop at the gas station, stopped fueled, popped the lid to make sure I had a fan belt at take a quick look that everything seemed to be connected. Upon starting the car the light came on as normal and then went out like normal. Well about 10 miles down the road it came back on and stayed on.

I had 5 minutes yesterday and took a quick look to see if I could see anything in the daylight and all looks well. I started the car to verify that the light was staying on, and it is, I did noticec thou that when the car idles down it gets dimmer, and when the engine RPMs increase it gets brighter. This is of course backwards behavior.

Since this is my daily driver it's killing me to let it sit in the garage.

Any ideas on where I should look first? I'll have time toimorrow to check any suggestions one might have. Thanks.

Scot

'67 912
http://www.geocities.com/ford10n/

Brushes would be a good place to start, then the regulator. Your local auto parts store can test that.
Good luck,
C.Clark

My light came on when the voltage regulator went on the blink. Check it before it strands you like it did me.

Good luck! My local parts stores won't even tuch a generator! Go figure. If you have a voltage meter at hot you should be able to check it. Is it the original generator of a rebuilt one? If its rebuilt chances are its gone. The rebuilds are crap. I've been through 4 and I know several others who have gone through rebuilt generators. Good luck!

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Joshua Harrison
1968 912 Coupe
www.geocities.com/jkh912
40 days till I'm reunited with my 912!!!!!!!!

Check the brushes and if the tops are lined up with the holders, replace them. Take them out and go to an auto generator/regulator rebuild place and they can get you replacement brushes. On a 69-912 the brushes are the same as the VW since the generators are the same. Not sure about the 67-912.

If I remember correctly, when you see the red light steady on while the engine is running, it means you are running on battery power. You need to check right away if it's a broken fan belt (real bad since it means no turning fan to bring in cool air) or a bad generator (not charging the battery and gen needs to be replaced or repaired).

Jones Low
69-912

Scot, this sounds like a problem I had with my 67 912. Turned out to be worn brushes, trouble was I was 200 mile from home and it was raining. Luckily I managed to get some old VW ones and filed them down to fit on the pavement (sidewalk ?). Any way I got some proper ones from my supplier in England although they have actually come from the US. A firm called Stoddard Imported Cars Inc. 38845 Mentor Ave Willoughby Ohio 44094. Their part No is NLA-603-905-00 and the Bosch No appears to be 1 107 014 135.
Hope this helps.
Regards Ian

Thanks for all of the replies. Due to a minor? back injury I haven't been able to get to the car to check on the brushes, or anything else for hat matter.

As soon as the doctor says I can, hopefully next week, I'll be under the hood checking this out.

I'll post an update at that time.

Scot
'67 912
http://www.geocities.com/ford10n/

Ok, finally able to get around some and checked the brushes, they're ok.

I went to the manual to see what it said. In there it says to turn the ignition on, the red generator light should come on, disconnnect the D+ wire from the generator and the light should go out, if not the wire is shorted to ground. Mine is very bright until I pull this wire and then it goes dim, not out. I checked the wire and it's not shorting to ground.

If I pull the little wire on top of the regulator(61) then the light goes out completely.

Does this sound like the regulator is the problem?

Has anybody else experienced this same condition? Thanks.

Scot
'67 912
http://www.geocities.com/ford10n/

So far your symptoms sound like my own recent experience...In the spirit of "check the simplest thing first", make sure there's a connection from the eng. compartment to the battery. Connect your voltmeter from the B+ wire, the big fat one that goes from the regulator to the battery, to ground. In my case there was zilch, meaning a bad connection. That wire goes back behind the engine and connects to the post on the starter. All I had to do was hook it up right and I was good to go.

-CC