1929 Durant Tidy Up

I discovered I had my coil wired back to front on the David Brown. Strange thing was that the coil did notget hot and it still worked. How or why I dont know.

Urchy, i would definitely stick with a 3 brush generator and cut-out.

Urchy,
Being American and that vintage it is almost certain to be a six volt system, if using a twelve volt battery could be reason for the ignition coil getting hot.
David.

Morris wrote:

$700 sounds like far too much to spend on what may not even be the cause of the problem.

I agree, first find the problem, then spend the money

Or at least that is how I work

Paul

wouldyou wrote:

Urchy,
Being American and that vintage it is almost certain to be a six volt system, if using a twelve volt battery could be reason for the ignition coil getting hot.
David.

David the photo shows it to be a 12 volt coil so that isn't the problem. Like Morris, I'd look at a new coil and condensor. Neither items very expensive.

I agree with wannabe, stick with the generator that is meant to be there, which as David says is surely a 6 volt system so the coil needs to match that. Morris says $700.00 is a lot. I agree. It's only a generator and unless the armature is totally shot, it can be rebuilt without much drama or expence.

Just my 18 cents worth.
Steve.

Unsure whether to post this. In the stick welder days we had a unit mounted on the front of a Massey tractor, 6 volt system. With a 12 volt battery and coil it did a lot of work, it is now one of my restorations.
My 1929 Nash tourer has also been changed to 12 volt, only done about 2000 miles yet.
They charge at a higher rate and the third brush has to be moved to compensate.
The starter is being asked to do more, if all else OK for a shorter period.
For intermittent or non continuous work those units have not suffered.
David.
,

For a small amount of money for a set of new brushes and the time to strip and clean the generator up and especially in between the gaps of the armature then check the bushes/bearings for wear then see if it works.
In the past I have taken a single brush into the auto electrical shop and asked for a set of brushes the same if not similar. If needed they can be easily filed down in width and thickness if needed but the main thing to try and match is the connections. Once all cleaned up and bearings checked and lubed then unless you see any burnt or broken wires in the field coils then your good to go. That will be cheaper than $700.00 and you can even paint it to make it look like a $700.00 job. Savings can be put toward the breaker or isolation switch so the 3rd brush works as designed.

No charge for B.S.

cobbadog wrote:

especially in between the gaps of the armature

You shouldn't under cut the commutator like this, the insulation should be pretty much level with segments
If it is under cut to far it will do 2 things

Wear brushes out really quick and collect carbon between the segments shorting the windings

Not having a go just saying what I believe to be correct

You can have huge grooves worn in the commutator with little negitive effect

Also when you make brushes to suit you can wrap a piece of emory tape with rough side facing the brush and pull it thru to give good contact on the commutator

Paul

Sorry, what I meant to say was that on the ones I have cleaned up there has been some carbon already there so I run the scribe along them to remove it but not gouge it out, sorry.

Hey, been a whole lot of nothing happening as day to day life is just consuming all of the spare minutes I’d normally have. I did discuss this issue with a couple auto electricians. None of them really want to just give advice. They go straight to pull it out and bring it to us. Can’t help you any other way. Unfortunately just pulling it out and taking it to them isn’t that easy being a car owned by a committee.

I went up there for half an hour one day. I found the wire from the condenser has a soldered joint and was basically grounded out on the oil fill tube. The last people to drive it said it was just breaking down and idling rough. If that was down to negative surely that could have been causing those issues. Went to play further but the battery was dead flat so took it out and have since charged it at home but haven’t been back.

I’ve done some of my own researching since. A book I found on the Durant states it’s a 3 wire. There is a bit of confusion at the start as only 1 wire seems to come out of it. It reads like it is the wire which would go to its circuit breaker that is no longer there and the of the wiring is internal, not sure where bridge rectification takes place. Come to think of it I think I tested DC voltage all that time ago. Hmmm. Might need to go through all of that again.

I should be able to get up there in the next couple days, thought I should jump on and give a minor update as you lot where so forthcoming with information. Below is some literature I found for the generator.

Urchy87