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From: Steven L. Finberg
>I sugest you do a little reading about Alternators. They indeed
>are current limited devices. Mostly by the internal magnetics.
>With out boosting the field voltage way above 12V the maximum
>current available will be very close to the device rateing.
>(35 A for the stock Alpine V alternator) With a short across the
>output you will have very low voltage available for the field and
>it likly will not put out more than an amp or two.
This is correct.
It has automatic current limiting through design because the stator
will become saturated due to the induced load. The current would
like to have gone up, but the available voltage goes down, and thus
the current is limited.
Larger stators, or more turns of larger diam (lower resistance) wire
will yeild more potential output current, which is generally why
larger alternators yeild more current.
Of course this doesnt explain why the huge Lucas unit only
puts out 35 amps.
Jarrid Gross
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