|
Mike, I believe 1944 would have had a cutout relay and not a regulator (somewhere in this mess I have a manual). In that case, the 3rd & 4th positions on the switch controlled the charging rate by grounding the field wire either directly (high charge) or through a resistor (low charge). Charge rate is held at high whenever the lights are on. An electromechanical voltage regulator does essentially the same thing except that high/low is controlled by a relay that opens & closes based on the output voltage instead of a manual switch. In a 3 relay regulator, one relay is the cutout, one controls voltage by switching a resistor in & out of the field line, and the third is a current limiter which pulls open when generator output current reaches some maximum level. The cutout relay simply served to disconnect the generator from the battery when the engine was not running in order to keep from discharging the battery, and had nothing to do with controlling charge rate. Keith PS...this discussion does not apply to electronic voltage regulators used with alternators.
| 
