Fried voltage regulator

[bugman]

After having reinstalled my motor and transmission, I ran the motor approx. one or two minutes when smoke came out of the voltage regulator. Removed it only to find it was fried. Checked all wiring to be correct. Only thing I found was that while changing brushes on the generator I pinched a brush wire on the rear plate. Could this have caused the problem?

 

[spritenut]

Yes, either wire, field or main wire being pinched would have been a dead short.
At least the wire harness didn't smoke.

 

[Sarastro]

Yeah, 'fraid so. All the battery current goes through one winding in the regulator, and although it can take a lot of current, it can't take battery dead-short current.

The regulators are not terribly expensive, fortunately, and are readily available.