From: w1gsl(at)MIT.EDU
>Well thats all the ammeter can tell you .. how well the charging system
is
>working.
The charging system also drives things like ignition systems, where
fuses do not exist.
Case in point, I few years ago, I got to find out that my Lucas coil
had
gone south becuase I showed a continous discharge while the
engine was sputterring and popping The discharge would go
away at higher RPMs, but not at low. Shutting the engine off showed
the same significant discharge, which was way more than normal.
The ammeter allerted me to the fact that there was some sort of
problem in the charging system, and after checking it all over,
I found that the coil had reduced its resistance internally by more
than half due to the fact that some windings had lost thier
insulation. The normal average current of the idling engine went
from several amps to well over 10.
I do not disagree that what you feel to be correct is in fact correct.
Perhaps SV cars were not wired the same with the ammeter as were
the generator equipt cars.
>Well where did you find an Alpine schematic with an ammeter? from your
> first post..
Look at the Alpine series 1 to 4 workshop manual.
I believe all series schems show the ammeter connections in dotted
lines. I know for fact that the series II schem does show this detail
in dotted lines.
Jeromes page has a redone schematic for a SII alpine that is
consistant with the wiring detail to which I speak.
http://www.tgx.com/bridge/sunbeam/image/diagrams/wiring.gif
>However in the same Rootes manuel the the alternator equiped
>Rapier and Sceptre (schematic 8409 P 61 and 8410 P. 67 respectivley)
>have ammeters wired exactly as I described.
I dont dispute this, But I have a series II alpine, with an ammeter,
which is wired per the workshop schematics for my year of manufacture.
Sounds like you have a SV arrow range manual, you know the
one made when Sunbeam was run by Chryslor.
Its not surprising that SV alpines were shipped without
ammeters considering how cheap Chryslor was getting.
This is also a likely expanation for the lack of a SV ammeter
equiped schematic.
>Further if we want to read Alternator current why bother with a
>+/- reading instrument.. due to the diode rectifier in the
>alternators output only unidirectional charging current can
>flow in the B+ lead.
I am hip here, it does make sense to wire the ammeter how you
describe. I just is not how it was done on the earlier cars thats
all.
>Finally just as a sanity check, my method is consistant with the
>ammeter hookup for a Honda and 2 Ford products I have the manuals
>for here in my office.
Apples and oranges, The Japanese knew how to wire stuff long ago,
and the americans practically invented automotive electrics, remember
we are talking about a british car here.
Jarrid Gross
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Sep 05 2000 - 10:05:44 CDT
