That's another one of the generator's redeeming qualities, right? The bump-start with a mostly dead battery?
Getting back to the subject of generators -vs- alternators. Is everything the same between a generator and alternator installation except for the "stand" it sits on? I guess that'd just be the backing plates that would be left? Are the stands different shaped? I've seen references to "generator/alternator" stands which suggests they are the same, but then again I've seen references to one or the other.... Still haven't competely decided what to do here. I'd like to try to keep the engine compartment as "clean" as possible, so mounting the regulator in a visible place makes me frown. Anyone ever found room for a volatage regulator on the back of a doghouse fan-shroud? Trying to picture one in my mind........hmmmmmmm Maybe towards the top? If all else fails one of the internally-regulated alternators would just plug-right-in.....(but it'd be big and fat and less pleasing to my eyes). -Garrett ----- Original Message ---- From: marc vellat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Air-Cooled Volkswagen Discussion List <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 2, 2007 10:52:49 AM Subject: Re: [vintagvw] Alternator / Generator conversion in an early car I suppose it's more embarrassing than humorous, but I was deep in the woods without a spare fanbelt and a high-compression engine that never would've made it the eight miles back to civilization without some cooling. November `84, took my wife and 1-year-old daughter up to Snoqualmie national Forest to cut our own Christmas tree. Flat-towed a P.O.S. `69 bug into which I'd slapped a spare race engine up to the Ranger station, bought our tree tag and headed out. Of COURSE I went to the "4WD VEHICLES ONLY" area, figuring on finding more trees to choose from there - and all the way in we kept meeting Jeeps packing out some lovely trees. What we found was a lot of 30 to 50 foot trees that had been felled just to take the tops off (strictly verboten, but the classless 4-wheelers obviously didn't care). I looked for virgin trails and found one winding up a hillside but we came around a turn and found it blocked by a fallen tree. At this point the "road" was less than 15 feet wide (between the mountain side and the cliff side, as Arlo Guthrie would say) and it took a fair amount of jockeying to turn the car around, during which the rapidly-revving engine (~300° cam and lightened flywheel) tossed its belt...that now resembles a Möbius strip, so it's not going back on. No big deal, says I, I'd grabbed the emergency parts/tools from the trunk of my wife's Squareback before we left town... Yes, I spaced out and didn't think of the difference in belt length between a Type I and a III. Y'know those black rubber bands used to keep tire chains snug? I had several of THOSE along, and they'll actually work as a fanbelt provided you keep the RPM low and don't let it change rapidly (as if THAT were possible with the engine I had on those trails). I had to keep stopping to put the bands back on, took eight tries to make it half a mile and it was threatening to get dark soon. We had survival gear and food & water, but spending the night cooped up in a bug with a baby was NOT in the plan. So we unpacked the rear to access the voltage regulator under the seat, and I connected D+ to B+ and DF to ground, tossed everything back in and made it down the mountain just as it was getting too dark to see without headlights. By now the battery was getting pretty weak - we MIGHT have made it the few more miles of paved road to the Ranger station but had to stop for a multi-car accident and of course the car wouldn't restart. I went from car to car looking for someone with jumper cables who'd be willing to put a little charge back in my battery. One guy happened to have a PILE of fan belts in the back of his Chev pickup - I never asked why, but was delighted to find one that looked VW-sized. It fit, I restored the generator wiring to stock and bump-started the car and the adventure was behind us. Bought a tree at the Boy Scout lot on the way home and kept that dayglo-orange USFS tree-tag hanging from my mirror for a couple of years as a reminder to prepare THOROUGHLY before going off into the boonies. --- Sharkey's Garage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > As for Marc's "amusing anecdote", I'm sure that I'm > not the only one here > that's a little curious to hear it. As others have > pointed out, list > traffic is down anyway... ;) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
