<VV> Generator/electrical/Corvair

[Tony Underwood]

At 05:57 PM 4/23/2009, PatioMatt at aol.com wrote:


>
>In a message dated 4/23/2009 2:30:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
>N6nev at aol.com writes:
>
>A generator is still a generator!  I have had  cars drive  into  the shop
>with the complaint that the amp meter charges "  backwards" and when I
>turn
>off the engine and turn on the head lites  the amp meter shows a charge.
>The
>customer stated he had the battery  out for charging, and that was my clue.
>=====================================================
>
>You must service some real winners!
>


...my brother was one.    He bought a '64 500 coupe from my insurance 
man (who was also into tuckunder Tempests) and had to put a battery 
in it (battery was already shot when he bought the car).   Guess what...




>1  Battery Terminals are different sizes!


...didn't matter to the 'bro.


>I only started  seeing reversed
>batteries when GM  started using side posts!


But not in a car with an alternator ;)    Big sparks and magic smoke 
happens.



>2   The reversed  Battery   situation will  not charge unless it's
>Polarized!!


Sure will.   My silly brother drove the 'Vair for the rest of the 
winter with the battery backwards and it stayed charged and he was 
too ignert to know about polarizing any generator.   I asked him...



>3  It's  BAT  to F,  to polarize!!


Interestingly enough, 'bro brought the car to me to find out why the 
radio wouldn't work "ever since he'd had the car".    I hung a 
voltmeter on the output transistor to look for 1.3 volts to see if 
the output circuitry was working at all and there was negative 
voltage on it.  ???     I went straight to the engine bay mumbling 
"No, it can't be that" but it was.

Oddly enough, I switched the battery around and immediately the radio 
roared to life soon as I touched the second cable to the 
battery.    The car had run for months with a reversed polarity 
battery in it and the radio still survived it with no evident 
damage.   Try that with something new...  LOL


By the way:  Started the engine and the generator charged normally 
without requiring polarization...  after having been charging 
backwards for months.   Evidently the gauss field being backwards 
didn't care either way in this instance.    I remember wondering if 
his heater motor was series wound or had perm magnets...had to have 
been series wound to spin in the right direction or he'd have been 
bitching about the heater.



A month later I ended up with the car after he rammed it into a 
bridge abutment.    Crammed the bumper almost against the 
crossmember, ruined the car for the most part although he hardly was 
scratched.   It had rusted out floors (fixed with plywood) and a 
rough interior to start with, so it got parted out.    That was in 
1983... I still have a front fender (the good one), rear deck lid, a 
door, front suspension and transaxle from the car.


tony..