gen light on just barely

[73veedubya]

it only does it when it is under load like with the head lights on its on barely. but when you put the turn signal on it lights up more same with the brights and the wipers, and the brake lights. what could be causing this?. gen going bad?. or bad connection?

[Randy in Maine]

It is common top have a faint glow when you are using a lot of juice, but clean and tighten the electrical connections at the battery, chassis ground strap, starter and the generator.

You may want to stick your volt ohm meter on there and see what you get. Does it help if you push in on the generator brushes?

Been here?

http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/htm/gen.htm

[glutamodo]

That can develop from having some resistance in the electrical system. Below is something that was written for the mid-60s electrical system, so it's a little different than a later model but it does talk about this issue. I had this happen once in my 62, and turned out to be resistance in my ignition switch.

On a 73, the current path from the battery is different though:

B+ on the regulator to
Unfused side of Fuse number 9 to
Terminal 30 on the igntion switch to
unfused side of fuse 11, then it jumps over to
through fuse number 12 and to the warning light.

[73veedubya]

hey guys thanks i will give the connections a go over and check things. it has a newer style gen in it so it might just be a bad connection some where