• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

TR2/3/3A No power at the field terminal TR3A

Flivver

Freshman Member
Silver
Country flag
Offline
Hi
I've been around TR3's for MANY years and do almost everything myself.
My question is? Driving last weekend my amp meter started bouncing onto the high charge side so to prevent any over charging I turned on the lights and heater to drawdown voltage and amps.
Skipping down the highway the RED :oops: light came on. I continued on my drive, turning off any drawdowns, and made my destination. Seemed like voltage regulator sticking.
Next morning a friend lent me some fine emery and I sanded the contacts and to no avail. I keep a new spare VR in the boot which I installed and still nothing. Charged the battery and drove it back home figuring a Group 24 battery will have no issues šŸ‘ Dubbin around with the charging system I am getting around 8 volts from the generator isolated with voltmeter. power at both ammeter posts power at A1 & A VR terminals and nothing at the F terminal? 1 regulator used and new regulator, both bad? Made in CHINA 😠
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
BSP & The FLIVVER
 
In my experience, those Lucas regulators are seldom correctly adjusted at the factory. For starts, I would install the new regulator and go through the adjustment procedure in the Lucas or TR manual. That might be enough. Be sure to adjust the mechanical parts of the relays' armatures, so they snap open and closed firmly.

BTW, I was once told by a BPNW customer-service guy that they had a 25% rate of return on those regulators!
 
In my experience, those Lucas regulators are seldom correctly adjusted at the factory. For starts, I would install the new regulator and go through the adjustment procedure in the Lucas or TR manual. That might be enough. Be sure to adjust the mechanical parts of the relays' armatures, so they snap open and closed firmly.

BTW, I was once told by a BPNW customer-service guy that they had a 25% rate of return on those regulators!
Hi Yoda
The regulator I installed when I rebuilt the motor was a MOSS and I bought a spare cause, well you know, Lucas o_O. This VR ran for 4 years with 5,500 miles on rebuild and no issue. Cleaned contact and nothing so I installed the CHINEESE made "new" one and same thing :mad:.
I still think it's a bad regulator from the tests I have done so I'm looking for a 2nd set of eyes and I appreciate the feedback.
Happy Motoring :smile:
 
When did 8 volts become acceptable?
Charley
Luke Skywalker, I did what a couple of manual suggested by removing spade ends of generator and connecting together through a volt meter to determine if in fact generator is working hence the 8 volts
 
Not sure what you mean by "connecting...through a voltmeter." If you mean one meter terminal to the generator's D output and one to the field, that's not the way to do it.

To test the generator, you should connect the field and dynamo outputs together directly, with no other connections, and then measure the voltage from that point to engine-block ground. With that connection, you should easily get 20-25V at modest engine speeds. Be careful to keep the speed low so the voltage doesn't get any higher.

This isn't a perfect test, but if the generator passes it, it's probably OK. If it fails, it's definitely bad.
 
Back
Top