Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Thanks for the info, I'll keep that in mind

 

Hopefully this one holds

 

... and what's the best oil for it?

 

Hmmmm an up weld? Nice!

 

10w30 ftw

 

I started at the top and went down

 

I almost said something but I don't want to catch a Critter

 

FFS, I even have a new pair of contacts in!

 

I think they're hiring at the rocket place.... @Hunterdc1

 

Must have them in upside down.

 

Well fellers my internet seems to have finally woke up for the day, as awake as the ancient copper wires of a rural DSL line get.

Yesterdays Past Tech mystery device is an alternator full field tester.

Up until the early 1960's cars came with generators which worked only tolerably well.
1) They didn't charge very well at an idle - you could run the battery dead idling for a long time with the lights and heater fan on.
2) The mechanical voltage regulators of the day weren't very accurate and could over charge the battery causing it to boil (and stink) on long high speed runs.
3) As more powerful lights and accessories like air conditioning became common the generator systems were further taxed.

Chrysler introduced the first standard alternator in 1960 on the Valiant model which although unusually styled and poorly marketed had many class leading innovations.



The other manufacturers trickled in alternators into the mid 60's, some starting out on commercial, high performance and luxury models first.

Early alternator equipped cars had a separate regulator box mounted mounted on the firewall, they were mechanical like the generator versions.

Later ones were electronic, Chrysler went electronic in 1970, GM cleverly built the regulator into the alternator in 1969 calling it the "Delcotron SI" alternator, SI standing for "system intrigrated". These are the alternators people still put on vintage cars, old tractors, heavy equipment, etc. - the perfect device: cheap, reliable, easy to repair.

What our device does is replace the regulator making the alternator go to full output for testing, this is called "full field".
An alternator has to have some power applied, called "field excitation" to make power. By controlling the excitation voltage the regulator controls alternator output.

Naturally the Wrenchmen of the day knew how to jump regulator wires to do this, however an oops when jumping wires sometimes lets the magic smoke out. The tool is just an easy way to test the alternator without jumping any wires.

The rubber coated hook on the tool is used on the Delco SI alternator to push a tab built into the internal regulator just for testing purposes -- again a brilliant design.

You can see the middle "D" shaped hole with the regulator tab at about 11 o'clock.



This is what the GM SI regulator looks like. You can see the tab at 3 o'clock.

 

What we got here Rusty? I personally enjoy the crusty patina look.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb9F2DT8iEQ

 

Looks a lot nicer than the neighbor at the (appropriately) bottom of the photo.

 

tOlaRenCes aRE tOo tiGhT on THoSe nEw enGInEs!!!