'59 Plymouth Forum

I received these inquiries from John Middleton today:

John Middleton wrote:I just put in a new battery with (+ve) connected to the generator and the generator got hot and started smoking after I stopped running the engine.

Could I ask you what you think the problem or cause might be?

The generator got extremely hot and was smoking pretty bad. I would think there is a simple dumb answer for this but I am a novice and not sure. Is the battery too powerful or is it just a bad generator. It ran well with the same type battery before.

As long as the battery is 12 volts, John, it can't be t0o powerful. I've heard about charging problems arising when the voltage regulator isn't properly polarized; but I'm not sure of the procedure, and in any event, I don't know if that could cause your generator to overheat.

Do any members have comments about this?

John Middleton wrote:I installed two front drums (new) and they are vibrating so I am in the process of replacing the front pads with relined ones. I am also going to get the drums turned once as they may be out of round from the factory.

Do you mean, you replaced the drums but not the shoes? That could definitely cause vibration -- the shoes will have a wear pattern that matches the wear of the old drums. I presume the vibration occurs when you step on the brakes, correct?

Were the drums balanced? I know that even the drums can have weights on them to keep them balanced, much like tires...

When I got Faulkner, I had terrible vibration in the rear drums when the pedal was pressed. They had turned the drums after taking the hubs off, and the hubs were not properly centered when reinstalled. I had a machinist recenter the hubs, and everything is now fine.

(By the way -- I have a spare set of front hubs, purchased from Charlie Poole. Charlie lives in Katrina's wake in Louisiana; I hope that all is well with him...)

Dan

I had a generator go bad on my 57 Plymouth last year. I had several spares so I put one on and it got hot and started smoking. I put another one on and the same thing happened, and then another and the same thing. So I replaced the voltage regulator with a spare and had no problems. Try a different voltage regulator.

i forget exactly the polorizing procedure, but i know i had to replace mine and with the new one (borg warner) came instructions. i believe it was the two lowest terminals on opposing sides that u jumped across with a wire. when mine went bad, it did not overcharge, rather it did not charge at all. i think the brand new one from the local parts store was maybe $25-30, so if i was u, and there is doubt about the one on there now, just replace it.---jeremy

Hello John,

I would also bet on the on the voltage regulator. It may happen that one of the two contacts inside fails due to its age. If you remove the cover you can test it by opening or closing the contacts manualy with am isolated screw driver. Don't wory about the arcing but take care that the generator doesn't start to smoke again!


Besides, here is a Volatag regulator on e-bay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1959-196 ... 0505QQrdZ1

I am late in picking up on this thead, but here goes..
For brakes that shudder, grab, squeal...the linings must be perfieclty clean..not contaminated in any way with brake fluid.
The next most important thing is to have your car's brake shoes "fitted" to your drums. this is not common practice, but if you request it, it wil be done. The shoes are ground to fit the drums..and dont mix them up when you install them!
As for the genrator getting hot after shut down, I would definitely suspect the voltage regulator acting up.

Thank you for your responses. I had a look at the voltage regulator and one of the (3) points was shut permanently thereby creating a current back into the generator upon shutting off the engine. I used some emory paper and cleaned the points and it appears to be fine now. The generator does not appear to be badly damaged so I now have a spare just in case as I bought it for replacement.

I had new pads put on the front brakes with new drums but it would now appear that the REAR brakes are also part of the problem so I will check them out in the near future.

I will get photogtraphs up and running to Dan in the very near future. Here is one for fun and any comments!