Mayday53 wrote:Thanks for the information, the armature turns freely and the case is in good shape so I will bring it to a "genny" mechanic to see what they can do with it. I always want to stay with the original if possible. If it is bad I was just recommended to put in a 12v.
Before you ship it off to a generator shop, you might consider looking it over yourself. Some generator shops can't get the brushes, as they're not real common these days. So they might call you in a week and ask you to get them. Especially painful if the shop is far away. Most of the time the generator is not "bad", it just needs a little refurbishment - like cleaning and new brushes.
That the armature spins doesn't tell you much, except that it's not totally rust inside.
The first thing to do is to motor your generator. Yes, a generator is a motor, and a starter motor is a generator. If you apply electricity to a generator, it will spin like a motor, and if you spin a starter motor, it will generate electricity. The only real difference is that each is optimized for a particular purpose. Some small equipment even has a dual-purpose starter-generator.
With a good 6-volt battery, run a wire from the positive battery terminal to the REG terminal of the generator. Run a wire from the negative battery terminal to the case of the generator. Run another wire from the negative battery terminal (or from the gen case), and touch it to the F. You should get a spark as you connect/disconnect it. Should be a noticeable spark, but might only be a tiny one. Now hold the wire on the F terminal for a few seconds - the generator should start spinning. If it spins, great - it's basically working.
If you're using a little gel-cell or lantern battery, the battery won't have enough juice to spin the generator. In this case, hold the wire on the F terminal, and see if you can turn the armature by hand. If not (feels locked up), that's good - it's trying to spin, just not enough oomph to get over the hump - and it's basically working. Disconnect the wire from the F as soon as possible! (Note that when it's hooked up but not spinning, it's a direct short through the brushes, so you want to disconnect as soon as possible)
Next is to examine the brushes. Pull off the big end cap, and remove the one screw that holds each brush down. Watch for the spring which will pop out. Remove the brush and examine. Old brushes are often worn way down, or be cracked or broken. The spring may have rusted and broken in half. Or be jammed sideways. You will almost always want to replace the brushes, unless they appear like new.
A spray can of Brake-clean will get most of the gunk and grit out.
Take a look at the commutator. It should be shiny and flat. You'll have to do a little more disassembly, but you can clean it up with some fine emery paper. If you take off any wires, be SURE to mark where they came from!!! You can follow in the service manual and undercut the mica separators between commutator segments with a broken hacksaw blade. If there is a huge ridge where the brushes were not riding, you may need professional help to clean it up.
Now try the motor test again. If it motors, or tries to, it works. If you got nothing before and nothing now, it has bigger problems. But now you know whether it works or not, and you can send it off to the shop to replace the bearings and do a more thorough cleaning inside and painting outside.
You should send the voltage regulator along with the generator so they can test them both at the same time, and adjust the regulator. You should have a 1118307 regulator - it is marked "307" on one of the mounting feet. It may have been replaced sometime along the line with a '794 or '989 - they look a little different, but work the same. The specs for the regulator adjustments (including the original D-R service bulletins) are in the Technical:Regulators section of this site. An internal wiring diagram for the 52K generator is shown in Technical:Generators.
One problem with the '307 regulators - the cover is held down by little bend-over tabs. These often break when someone tries to take off the cover to make adjustments. Your shop may still have a little tool to help do this, but that metal is old and brittle. Harley (and D-R) used to sell a replacement cover because of this problem.
Oh, and you may want to pick up the oil seal too - your generator shop may not be able to get one. My generator shop (who let me copy all their great old D-R docs) could not get the brushes or the oil seal - I had to get them. Since they're far away, I bought the parts on-line, and had the parts shipped directly to the shop. Had I known, I would have bought the parts in advance, and saved a lot of trouble.
Dave