I am respectful of your opinions Jerry, however some of what you stated may not be things I totally agree with. Generators were fine on Model A Fords and cars long ago when there were no alternators, but notice how quickly they were all replaced with alternators when alternators became available? I used to be in the auto repair business, and can attest that generators failed at a miserable rate, you could buy a replacement at any Western Auto store, alternators rarely fail. I would bet that nobody here has replaced their alternator on their car with an old generator. It took aircraft a little longer to get converted over, but they eventually did. Costwise, more money has been spent by an IA troubleshooting my obsolete generator system than it would have cost to convert to a brand new alternator system - AND IT STILL DON"T WORK PROPERLY! The added charging power may be needed by the addition of many things electrical that were not around in 1946. My Ercoupe friend has an original generator on his coupe that has been overhauled, and he still has to carry an extra fully charged battery with him to power his GPS, thei original system will not carry his entire load of strobes, radio, transponder with encorder, intercom, etc. That "solution" is not for me.
--- In [email protected], "Jerry Eichenberger" <jeichenber...@...> wrote: > > Ed - > > I haven't participated in this discussion. I'm NOT a fan of alternators' > replacing generators. > > Many reasons: > > 1. Coupes don't need that much current, so the idea that an alt. will > produce juice a low rpm means little to me. > > 2. Alts. fail suddenly, generators don't. > > 3. If you drain your battery totally dead, you can't get an alt. to charge > the battery. I know a Coupe is dangerous to prop, but in a real pinch, out > in the boonies, if you have to get it started and have a gen., the gen. will > start recharging the battery as soon as it's running. > > 4. Gens. are far less expensive to overhaul, if your alt. can be repaired > at all. > > In essence, what are the upsides the the conversion? Only a few, very few, > saved pounds of weight, and lots more expense and hassle with the alt. > > Jerry E. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]on > Behalf Of ebengui...@... > Sent: Sunday, March 14, 2010 8:40 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ercoupe-tech] Cessna/Ford Alternator STC > > > > > O.K.Gang, > Now that we've bounced around on the alternator. > What would be the best type of alternator to to replace my generator > in my 415 G coupe with 85HP ? ( K I S S ) Suggestions are welcome. > Thank you > Ed >
