Lincoln V12 charging

[JACK M]

I got a job cleaning up some wiring in this old car.

Its an old school hot rod and the builder has been dead for some time from what I understand.

Its a V 12 flat head Lincoln and it has been on consignment at a couple of car lots by the widow.

Therefore I must assume that everything is incorrect.

The generator has three posts, one is marked field and the other two are not marked. One is on the end of the generator and the other is near the field post.

It came to me with a 12 volt battery installed positive ground, but I know that it was hooked up negative ground at some point.

The generator will motor if I hook power (negative) to the post on the end so may I assume that this is the armature post?

There is a regulator but every wire is red and for sure at least the one from the remaining mystery post on the generator is not hooked up to anything. I would guess that this should be a ground wire to the regulator

Is there any way to determine if this is in fact a 12 volt generator? There is no tag.

And if I was to rewire everything can I run it negative ground?

Every wire is red and I am going to replace most of the wiring.

Another observation, there is a ballast resistor in the ignition system.

 

I have no way of knowing if this set up has ever worked properly.

 

And yes I know this is not a hot rod forum but it seems to have the most knowledgeable membership on these old systems.

Maybe one of you Lincoln guys could help me out here.

[Beltfed]

Where is this ballast resistor? Original cars had two ballast resistors (one for each coil) mounted in the middle of the interior fire wall. I am told that the original coils do not like 12 volt. The biggest thing is polarity. If you change from positive to negative ground you will lose about 40 percent (if I remember correctly) of your spark voltage and you points will go south very quickly.

[JACK M]

Thanks for the interest Beltfed, Love your coupe.

The Ballast resister is on the interior fire wall and the resisted feed splits near the coils.

This is not in a Lincoln, it is in an old Oakland Roadster so everything is home built.

 

I am doing this work for a dealership that has the car on consignment, I located the original problem in that no current is passing thru the ammeter. But they want the wiring cleaned up as I don't think it ever showed charging when it ran.

I was able to get the thing started by jumping the ammeter. But it doesn't show charge and none of the lights work. Hence the rewiring .

I am going to take a look at the bulbs today and see if they are 6 or 12 volts.

I may be interested in one of those one wire look alike alternators that they offer at Speedway Motors and go with a volt meter. These are after market gauges any way.

 

Can you tell me which generator posts are which? If I can get it running again I can connect the battery and armature at the regulator thus eliminating the regulator and it should run at full charge.

[Owen_Dyneto]

Often the two non-grounded terminals of the generator will be different sizes.  If so the larger one is the armature and the smaller the field.  If there is a 3rd it's probably a ground.

[Ttotired]

Switching to neg earth should not cause a problem, but be careful messing around with generator polarities as its really easy to destroy the contacts in the regulator

 

Trying to motor a generator is the easiest way to re polarize it (if you made it run with a negative cable to the frame of the generator, it will now be neg earth)

 

If the ammeter is open circuit, then it wont show charge

 

As for the posts on the generator, the earth one will not have an insulator under/on it, the other 2 are easy, the armature one will make reasonable spark when you try to power it and the field one will be much less and sort of sound different

 

As for voltage, once you work out the field post, do a current draw on the field circuit and that will tell you

 

Hard part is I cant remember what the current should be, but a 6V coil, tested on 12V will have double the current draw of a 12V coil tested on 12V.

 

Off the top of my head, a 12V field should be about 4 amps, just not 100% on that

 

Mick

[JACK M]

OK, I am learning more all of the time here.

Thanks for the input.

One more question on the engine, How do I determine what year it is?

[Rusty_OToole]

If there are  no markings on the generator what about the voltage regulator? It may be stamped 6v or 12v. What about accessories like coil and light bulbs? Take out a few light bulbs, if they are all 12v it is likely the generator is 12v. If there are no stampings on the outside take off the lid and look for a label inside.

 

Give us a couple of pictures of the generator and someone will give you every detail about it in about 2 minutes.

 

Once you find out what kind of generator and regulator you have all you need to do is find a wiring diagram and cookbook it together.

 

Treat the charging system as a sub system of its own. Break everything down to subsystems and even to the level of individual wires and components. Work on one thing at a time and it will be much easier.

 

As for engine, if you can find a serial number someone should have the info you need. Again, pictures tell a thousand words.

 

You might find more experts here. This is a leading forum for vintage hot rods. DO NOT use the word Rat Rod it drives them nuts. But they will love the Lincoln V12 powered roadster.

 

Hokey Ass Message Board - THE H.A.M.B.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Rusty_OToole (see edit history)

[JACK M]

Thanks Rusty,

I have determined that this is a 46 to 48 engine.

I spent a few hours looking the thing over yesterday and found that whoever wired it up the first time didn't know much and may have given up before he got done.

He has the head lights mounted sideways (not sure what I am going to do about that) and there is no provision for hi to low beams, it looks like he may have used the low beam wire for a ground and wired up the high beams to a toggle switch.. The tail lights are not hooked up at all, there are a coupe of runs to the back of the car that don't do anything and a bunch of wire under the dash that doesn't do anything.

I have another project on the lift that I should be able to finish by the end of the week and then I can look at all that spaghetti under the thing.

Its all coming out and I have ordered a one wire look alike alternator and a volt meter. It is a pretty simple car and I think I have enough remnants from other projects to make up a nice clean harness with most wires being marked (left over pieces from kits with marked wires).

I am now trying to figure out how to fit it with a fuel sender by brail, the tank is way up in the trunk behind the seat and wont come out short of taking the body off.

I will take a couple of pictures today. Its a neat little car and it deserves to be done up right. Well right for what it is anyway.

[JACK M]

Here is the little gem, Note the vacuum operated oiler. it plumbs directly into the intake manifold.