Dynamo or regulator issue?

[lutchenko]

Hi

I'm new to this forum so I apologise for diving straight in with a question.
My son's car is a 1971 1300 Beetle with 1600cc engine and I'm trying to determine if we have a problem with a voltage regulator but would like a sanity check please.

With the engine running I see 12.2V across the battery at both idle and higher revs.
I then conduct a test of the dynamo by disconnecting it and measuring the voltage as described in this link... http://nls.net/mp/volks/htm/gen.htm
When I do this I see a little over 50V at around 1500rpm or so.

So my question is do I have a faulty regulator or is the dynamo putting out too high a voltage?

Is there a way to test the regulator?

Many Thanks in advance for any help.

[Marc]

Assuming the connections and wiring are all correct/in good condition, you just did. The generator's putting out when you manually ground the field winding, but not when the regulator is connected and responsible for the job => bad regulator.

[lutchenko]

Assuming the connections and wiring are all correct/in good condition, you just did. The generator's putting out when you manually ground the field winding, but not when the regulator is connected and responsible for the job => bad regulator.

Hi Marc

Many thanks for the reply.
This is my thinking as well but I just wanted a sanity check before ordering a replacement.