>When my Diesel Vanagon caught fire I just replaced a bunch of fuel hoses, >connected a lead to the shut-off solenoid and ran some jumper cables from >the starter to the battery. So no, it does not *need* an alternator to >run. I will say that it was not running in top form under that condition. An old-fasioned diesel has no engine electrics apart from MAYBE a fuel-shutoff valve, and so can run indefinitely without alternator or battery. But you'd have to pushstart. My 57 panel Split, running a 12V single-port 1600 back in 1983, had a regulator failure at the beginning of a 900km (each way) trip; a wire in the winding broke. I had to use wipers for some time, and it got dark. It did about 320km before the engine began sputtering and I had to turn the wipers off; a further 40 or so before the QH headlights became too much for the draining battery, and we had drive on parking lights to find a town and doss down on the grass in a park (van was FULL of heavy junk). I thought it did really well. By the way, I assume your diesel van's fire was electrical! -- Andrew Grebneff 165 EvansSt, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> Ph: 0064 (3) 473-8863 fax: 0064 (3) 479-7527 1986 Toyota Corolla 1.8DX CE80 diesel sedan 1989 Toyota Corolla 1.8DX CE96 diesel van 1989 Toyota Corona 2.0D Select CT170 diesel sedan 1992 Toyota Estima Lucida 2.2 turbodiesel MPV (=narrow "Previa") 1984 VW Caravelle GL (to be fitted with 260hp Subaru SVX flat-6 & Porsche G50 trans) Seashell, Macintosh, VW & Toyota van nut |
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