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SW 48 electrical question

Bait Guy

New member
I have a sw48 with a chysler 231, well anyways the other day I was "testing" the blade out on her and she quit , no sputter no nothing, just died. I pushed it back into the shop and no spark was found, well OK, I had another coil, so I tried that to no avail, then was looking for the regulator, well, I cant find one, is it built into the alternator? I will also change my points and condenser with new cap but all that is on order. I guess my question is only about the regulator, if there is one.
 

akimp

New member
http://www.vintagepowerwagons.com/featured-parts-catalog.html
This is a link for Canadian power wagons. My J5 came with a Chrysler 251 which has a longer block than the 231 but most parts are interchangeable. The block should measure 25 inches on the 251 and 23 inches on the 231. Through a measuring tape on yours to verify. You could of sheared your distributor shaft so I would check to see you have that spinning with the cap off to verify that first if that was not already done in your trouble shooting. Good luck
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
if some one replaced the generator with a 1 wire delcotron alternator the regulator will be internal. before you toss parts at it crank the engine with the dist cap removed check that the distributor is turning. on the positive side of the coil check for battery voltage with a test light on the negative side you should have a pulsing light when cranking if the light stays on or off you have found your problem.
 

rcc

Member
You may have blown the ballast resistor, if it has not been removed. depending on the year it would be in the engine compartment behind the seat, it is white and about 3 inches long and one of the two wires goes to the coil.
The engine is most likely a Canadian 251 the USA Chryslers as mentioned in a previous post have a shorter block but internal parts are not the same and it would be a 230 not a 231 from my history files.

The problem would not be the regulator if the battery has power to turn the engine over it would not care about voltage regulation until after it started.
Hope this helps and you get it fired up...
 

JimVT

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
I think you have two ways to run the pertonics with or without a resistor
my bombi just quit like that and it was the coil but you checked that.
 

rcc

Member
With Pertronics system the ballast resistor must be removed.

One thing you can look for is ignition switch overheating as all the 30amps goes through the switch, however once cooled down it should work again, should not will. I had this happen with the J5 when I first installed new lights meaning more lights, worked great until the machine just shut down out in the bush of coarse... after looking around for 10 min or so it started. so I left the rear lights off no more problem. Since then I isolate the lights and the ignition with its own relay (from pertronics).
 
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