Info about M38A1 70 amp generator???

jeeperjoe · Post by **jeeperjoe** » Tue May 07, 2013 1:58 pm

Does anyone know anything about a 70 Amp generator used in a M38A1 (or any other military vehicle)? It's currently connected to a large Autolite regulator (with no tag on it! Grrr!) but that may not be the right regulator for it. I just bought this M38A1 and it doesn't appear to be charging but I'm working on the engine right now so I can't check closer for the moment. I looked in my Autolite electrical manual but can't find any numbers even remotely close to the ones on the generator.

Post by **wesk** » Tue May 07, 2013 2:18 pm

Can you provide a cleaner photo of the tag? There's a lot of info there that is unreadable in the photo.

XXX0001-BT

XN24XX-X

and the bottom 3 lines of data.

jeeperjoe · Post by **jeeperjoe** » Tue May 07, 2013 4:40 pm

I will but it will have to wait until I take the generator out of the Jeep. I only managed to get this photo by sticking the camera down in a hole and shooting blind. I may also blow this image up and zoom in on the numbers and see if that helps.

PS I should add that this is a water proof generator and regulator with the sealed three wire cable like the VBC series. It's a bit puzzling to me because the cable is only about 1/2" in diameter yet it's supposed to have 70 Amps following through it! I would think the conductors and cable assy would be MUCH larger. The cable on my M37 is probably at least three times as big and it has 50 Amp (IIRC) output. The undersized cable could part of the problem.

Wes, Unrelated but did you get my PMs about the manuals that I found? Also did you get my E-mails with the survey data that you requested?

Post by **wesk** » Tue May 07, 2013 5:44 pm

It is common for cables to appear smallish when a person is not familiar with 24 volt systems. 70 amps would require a cable at least 00 for 6 volt, 0 for 12 volt and somewhere around 4 or 6 for 24 volt from the generator to the battery or from the generator to the regulator.