If you removed the wires from the ammeter and place an ohm meter across its leads, it should be almost a short circuit UNLESS its open n bad and then no charging current could pass through it like Jim was talking about. Also, if you put your volt meter on the battery and short by pass the meter like he suggested and the batetry voltage then rises, sounds like an open bad meter is the problem ASSUMING ITS WIRED CORRECT. Id also insure theres a good wire from the BAT terminal on the VR or Cutout Relay up to the load (NOT battery/starter) side of the ammeter cuz thats the charging current path otherwise it cant charge n raise the batterys voltage. Theres usually onky ONE wire on teh ammeters Supply side that leads to the battery/starter while its other Load side is what wires down to BAT on the VR plus supplies hot battery voltage (if ammeter is good and continuous) to loads like lights n ignition. If the VR's Cutout relay is closing that tells me its producing higher then battery voltage so if you can get a continuous current path from the genny to n thru the relay and actualy up to the battery via the ammeter it should raise battery voltage ????? Although you say you see the relay is closing... Are you sure its the Cutout Relay instead of the Field current control relay????? ????? ???? if the genny was okay but the cutout relay wasnt closing you can try to by pass short jump around it by temporarily wiring the VR's BAT and GEN/ARM terminals togetehr n see if she charges then????? ? if that makes it charge (ammeter would have to be okay) then its the Cutout relay thats the problem instead of the ammeter or other things. TEST THE AMMETER TO BE SURE ITS NOT OPEN,,,,, ,BE SURE ITS WIRED CORRECT,,,,, ,TRY TO DEAD GROUND THE GENNYS FIELD TO SEE IF SHE CHARGES,,,,, ,,TRY TO BY PASS JUMP THE CUTOUT RELAY AS DESCRIBED ABOVE IN CASE ITS THE PROBLEM If you need my long winded Troubleshooting Procedure to diagnose non charging problem search the archives or post back John T
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