Help. Need 912 generator
 

Hi, I’m in a jam. It’s not your fault but maybe you can help me. I just did a trip from Canada to San Diego in my 1967 912. Mechanically it’s been amazing but earlier today my generator light came on. I checked with a probe and it is dead. I am on the California coast heading north am wondering if anyone has one to sell that can be overnighted my way.
I am just having the battery fully charged and will be heading north again tomorrow. My plan is to either buy an extra battery just in case or make sure it’s charged a few times a day. This car has an aftermarket electronic injection system so the pump works quite hard.
The one I need is the small diameter one.
Other than that (and a bad pump) my wife and I are having a good trip.
Thsnks

You might have some luck swinging into a shop that rebuilds alternators, generators and starters.

Where on the CA coast are you?

In Gualala just south of Fort Bragg

Steve DeJung at DeJung Motorsports is in Cotati.

You already passed us by a few hours. I don’t have a spare, but I’d give you mine to get you home, and you could ship it back.

Are you sure it's the generator and not just the regulator? You can buy a regulator that will work at most auto parts stores.

I have one sitting on the shelf, it was rebuilt a few years back and never use.
I'm in Los Angeles,

Thx,
Pat

Have you checked the condition of the brushes? Causes the same symptoms and is a snap to change.

If you make it to the Oregon coast, I am an hour away in Eugene. I have a couple.

Thank you all for your posts. Unfortunately since I wasn't at my home computer I couldn't get my password right. I tried re-setting a few times but it didn't seem to work.
My original generator was rebuilt in B.C last fall. I headed down to San Diego last month and on my way home it failed. I had a shop order brushes for me, one was worn right out and the other was fine. We installed the bad one and I went on my way pretty happy.
A few hours later near Fort Bragg the light came on again. The other brush was worn right down. I found a great guy at a European repair shop who said that the comm was a bit rough so I cleaned it up with some emery paper and installed the one new brush that I had. I was pretty happy again thinking that the worn comm was eating brushes. Unfortunately a few hours later the light came on again and the brushes were wrecked.
The people at Dan's Auto Electric in Eureka were amazing and called every supplier and local VW types but as you know these 1965 to 1967 small diameter generators are hard to find.
I ended up finding one in Grants Pass from Vitage VW Werks so I rented a car and drove there and back (8 Hours) and checked it out at Dan's. It worked. Dan also set the regulator and showed me how to do it. It was charging a bit too high and would have contributed to over-working the generator. He also put a relay into the starter connection since the starter had failed often.
I drove the next two days to Port Angeles without a problem. Well, one small one. When I woke in the morning the starter was very slow, like a low battery, but started. I had to push start it when I got off the ferry to Victoria. I deduced that we had set the regulator down to a correct level since it was charging at too high a voltage, but we had done it when the battery was low and it needed the higher charge, so we set it too low. Once the battery was charged it was set too low to maintain a charge so those two days drive slowly ran the battery down. Since he showed me exactly how to set it, I checked and it was low so I upped it using a meter and sure enough after not too long it was charging again so I was able to make it home to Powell River.
Thank you all for your help. This is a great forum.

The kind of vintage Porsche story we all like to hear. Happy ending.
Can't have too many small 912 generators!

No kidding. I will probably rebuild my old one to have as a spare.