The real solution is as Ted outlined, get the charging voltage up and isolate the leakage. As to the battery switches, just google it and you'll get a variety of them. I've used several of this type and still do. One car with a high amperage starter and high compression kills one about every 2 years. I carry a wrench to remove it if it fails, and just hook the cable back to the battery.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Well I know for a fact that the regulator is new, brand new, I'd be surprised if it's not working right. But I'm willing to put some tests on it if I knew what tests to do.

Yeah funny enough I was just looking at those exact cutoff switches on youtube, honestly though the cars operation alone will destroy one of those things eventually? lol I guess they weren't exactly made for these old beasts were they? I was going to go up and see if I could find one at harbor freight which is where I heard you get those from. The only issue I foresaw is that the videos I watched said these need to be hooked up on the ground wire, but on the fords the grounds are the positive posts so I didn't even know if you could get those things to fit on the larger positive posts.

You need the shop manual, it will tell you how to adjust the voltage regulator. New or not, if you're not showing 7.2 volts or there abouts at 1500 rpm or so, you're not charging the battery sufficiently. Adding load, like the lights, makes it worse. Those old voltage regulators are coil and point mechanical devices. Installing them included adjusting them. The bright side, a multimeter and a screwdriver is all you'll probably need. No computer skills necessary.

The battery disconnect will work fine on the negative terminal. Normally, shut offs or disconnecting the battery is always started on the grounded side to reduce the risk of an accidental short circuit. Basic safety procedure. Pull the positive ground, pull the hot negative, put the disconnect in, reconnect the hot negative and then reattach the positive ground cable.

After 17 years my bird is still running the 6 volt starter on 12 volts. I ran one of those disconnects for years on it with no failure. I was just warning you in case. With electronic ignition, etc, my car starts really quick, so I never tested the endurance of the disconnect switch on it. You can find much more heavy duty ones, they're just more money and maybe more work to install. Try a motorhome/RV outlet.



miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Do you think this digital volt meter would work in my 55?

https://www.ebay.com/i/181924696970?chn=ps&dispItem=1

Don't see why not -  I used a digital lighter plugin  voltmeter in my 56 Bird and it worked ok.





54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

You will have to find out how it is wired.  It can read  0-99.9v but the display will have to work with 6v or less.


Lawrenceville, GA

Alright, so I swapped out my modern regulator box for an old NOS regulator that I bought a few years back and for whatever reason thought it was defective and didn't use. I decided to do this because I noticed that the circuit breaker points (BAT) were misaligned and not directly above and below each other, that gave me the impression that the build quality might be questionable.

So I put the NOS box on and now I've got the opposite problem, I'm getting to much charge. The circuit breaker (BAT) points stay closed constantly at dle and at higher RPMs. The battery is being charged up into the 8 volt range which I know is too high. I know that this means I need to decrease the tension on the current and/or voltage regulator to limit the charge. I've watched this old Chrysler video on regulators from the 40s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRk1xbJIBcY

I'm just a little confused about the current (FIELD) and voltage (ARM) regulators. If I alter one of them (I think you start with the current regulator (Field) and bring the charge down to 7.2 - 7.3 volts where it's supposed to be. How do I know if the voltage regulator is set right? Or are they both fine as long as one is set to limit the max battery charge? It says in the video the voltage regular is a "pressure valve" so you don't overload your wiring, but I don't know how you'd get a reading on the setting of that regulator from a multi meter.

Also is it a rule that the generator shouldn't be outputting at idle? That you shouldn't get the circuit breaker cutting in till about 1500 RPMs? Does it damage anything if the generator is just running all the time, moving and idling? Or maybe I misunderstood you guys and you just mean the gen won't be spinning fast enough to make its maximum output till the engine is at 1500 RPMs.

UPDATE:
Well apparently I screwed something up. Now whenever the car is off, ignition off, key out, the GEN light comes on and stays on. It turns off when the car is running but it's on all the time now when the car is off. I had this problem years back and I have no idea how it got fixed and I don't know what I did to make it happen this time. The last thing I remember doing is I was using my multimeter to take readings directly from the connectors on the regulator to see what was being pumped out. I needed a ground and I grounded the other test lead to the ground bolt on the regulator.. I guess I should have grounded it on the battery. Whatever I'm stupid I guess.

The regulator box is a lot harder to adjust then it sounded like. I can barely get in there with a screwdriver or pliers to adjust the spring tension without making a spark on something. It's got my shutting the car off, disconnecting the battery, and starting it again just to make an adjustment now so that I don't burn something out.

Please, if anyone has any advice I'd really love to hear it, I'm totally lost at this point and I don't even know if my car is safe to drive. : (

Yes the voltage regulator is a good place to start. Keep in mind that if you put a new voltage regulator on you might have to flash the field to get the charging circuit to work as it should again. The battery cut offs are not that hard to put in most of the time you want to put them on the negative side and use 2 ground cables one from the battery to the cut off or master switch as some would call it and then the other to a good clean grounding point. I had that problem with my 64 for a while and found my brake light switch was pulling power but not enough to turn on the lights and would kill the battery over night.