> Will an alternator start without this "idiot" light? Yes it will. Here's
> some empirical evidence: On day, as an experiment, I
> disconnected the wire
> to the charge light on my TR6 (which had sat idle for at least a week) and
> started it up. I slowly increased the engine speed until the charging
> circuit kicked in (as indicated on my ammeter). The alternator started
> working at about 1700 RPM. With the light connected it usually
> kicks in at
> 1200.
This seems to vary with the alternator (possibly depends on the
characteristics of the regulator, or even on the material used in the
rotor), but the old Ford unit I used on my TR3A would not self-start even at
5000 rpm. With only the original ign lamp, it wouldn't reliably start below
about 3000 rpm.
Randall
/// triumphs@autox.team.net mailing list
/// To unsubscribe send a plain text message to majordomo@autox.team.net
/// with nothing in it but
///
/// unsubscribe triumphs
///
/// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool
|