Alternator wiring

The easiest way is to connect the alternator to a small lead acid battery. This will give the alternator something to sense as well as providing the necessary initial field excitation. In fact, without a battery, an alternator may not give any output. Small 12 volt batteries are now cheaply available from fire and intruder alarm panels, UPS systems, etc. These applications require the batteries to be changed every 5 years when they will still have some useful life. Most maintenance companies will give you some if you ask.

John

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The wild eye" saying something like:

You need a battery for the alternator sensing wire to sense. Otherwise, the alternator will just shove out voltage until it or the bulbs go pop.

Google for "car alternator charging circuit".

If I recall correctly, a car alternator unregulated will churn out about 38 volts on tickover.

regards,

Kim Siddorn.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Kim Siddorn" saying something like:

Heh. In the Haynes Book of Lies for my old GSs, the recommended way to check alternator output is to disconnect the reg and hold the engine at

Thanks guys

Gosh. Another UKRMer!

Chris D

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Chris Deuchar (UKRM)" saying something like:

I've been lurking here for a while - always having an interest in engines, it's only relatively recently the stationary engine has grown in my consciousness. After all, so many of my vehicles have had stationary engines in them at some point.

Surely, a car engine that isn't going at the moment should be described as "sedentary" ;o))

regards,

Kim Siddorn.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Kim Siddorn" saying something like:

Or simply, 'broken'.

Actually, many years back I built gensets for a living, using the then current Lister SR and HR series amongst others. At the time I hadn't the foggiest about the history of Lister and what engines they'd made before I came across them. I'm picking it up now and have become more interested as time goes on.

I'm keeping my eye out for a CS 6/1 or similar to start me off, but to get my hand back in I may just build a genset using the diesel Golf lump I have lying around.

My chevy vega pushed about 130v without a regulator. Robert Provins

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "rprovins10" saying something like:

Without any regulation it'll go up and up with speed. I'm sure I've come across some web info on how to make car alternators churn out some useful mains voltage - problem is, they're relatively high frequency, so aren't much good except for driving heating elements, tungsten lighting, etc in the raw state. Mind you; in an emergency situation, that would be quite good enough.