Date:         Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:35:46 -0600
Reply-To:     Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mike South <msouth@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      What an alternator really does,
              and my Bostig experience so far (was Re: Belt squeal question)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Followup, for anyone in the same remarkable depth of ignorance as I was,
there's a great link to the basics of how an alternator works from that
site:

http://web.media.mit.edu/~nathan/nepal/ghatta/alternator.html

I had no idea.  And yet I'm full speed ahead on my Bostig conversion.  If
only professional courtesy didn't prevent it, the guys up there could share
some funny stories about my support tickets, I'm sure!

BTW, speaking of them, I find Bostig support to be really top-notch.  I know
some of the questions I've asked must be head-shakers up there, but the
answers are always both prompt and courteous, and they also have provided me
with extra little tips (maybe only when they detect a rank newbie on the
other end?) that were very much appreciated.

Every step I've taken further into the process has only served to convince
me more that this is definitely the right conversion for me, a person
interested in all of it but knowledgeable about precious little.  Of course
I still might blow up my garage in the process, so I guess the jury should
be out until the SCT sings, but man, it really makes the process fun to have
it so well planned out by people who know what they're doing.

I put together the thermostat housing with my 11 year old, looking forward
to a lot more time with him on it.  And one of the neatest things about it
is that it really makes you think through the system and gives you a gentle
introduction to how the whole thing works.

mike

(Anyone in the north Texas area interested in seeing a Bostig conversion
in-process, pmail me!)

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 5:56 PM, Mike South <msouth@gmail.com> wrote:

> I can tell you with all the certainty of someone who tried this in a
> science museum once, that if you have a generator driven by a bicycle, and
> you flip on a hair dryer plugged in to said generator, it becomes VERY hard
> to pedal.
>
> I would expect something similar in an alternator, but they didn't have one
> of those at the museum so I don't know. :)
>
> Actually I guess it could have been an alternator in the museum.  I was
> using "generator", above, in the sense of "that which generates electricity
> from spinning something" sense, not in the "I actually know that an
> alternator is a magnetic field spinning by static wires and a generator is
> the other way around and I didn't just learn that on
> http://www.differencebetween.net/" sense.
>
> mike
>
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Daryl Christensen
>> <daryl@aatransaxle.com>wrote:
>>
>> > Often the load from cranking the engine will make the belt squeal for a
>> bit
>> > if the belt is a tad loose.
>> > Till the alt gets some charge going and reduces the alt load then its
>> > peachy.
>> >
>> > Daryl of AA Transaxle
>> > 425-788-4070
>> > "On the cutting edge of Old technology"
>> > 86 Syncro Westy w/Turbo Zetec in the trunk
>> >
>> >
>>
>>   So (thanks, BTW Daryl) am I correct in supposing that the load on the
>> belt, the mechanical load it must rotate, is higher when the current draw
>> demands more electricity from the alternator?   I have only a vague idea
>> of
>> how an alternator functions.
>>
>>  When the battery or the operating engine "wants" a large load, either to
>> re-charge after a prolonged cranking start, or when you have every
>> electrical widget running in the vehicle, is that alternator 'harder to
>> turn'?  If so, then it sort of makes sense the belt might slip a little,
>> then 'get a grip' as the load at the pulley diminished.
>>
>>  Don Hanson
>>
>
>