Maximum Field Current for Delco 10SI Alternator?

[Ulysses]

That would be the Honda 600. 600cc 2 cylinder air cooled engine. I believe it
did have a primary chain, oil immersed, thansfering power to the transaxle. The
'coupe' may have been a 2 seater, the 'sedan' was a "four seater" (the 2 in the
back had better be skinny) Tires were 145SR10's on the 2 I had. Unfortunately,
the crankshaft was pressed together around bearings that only lasted 50,000
miles, so every 50K you had to replace the crankshaft. The things drive like a
go-kart - really fun. I believe I got 30-35mpg.

I guess USAmericans didn't like driving a go-kart. Kinda surprising
considering how popular those Quad ORV things are right now. Heck, I got
32-33 mpg with my '93 Ford Escort with two adults, two kids, and two big
dogs in it. It had seats and everything ;-)

 

[Vaughn Simon]

I guess USAmericans didn't like driving a go-kart. Kinda surprising
considering how popular those Quad ORV things are right now. Heck, I got
32-33 mpg with my '93 Ford Escort with two adults, two kids, and two big
dogs in it. It had seats and everything ;-)

Some of us like small cars. My family's favorite all-time car was "baby", a
1980 Plymouth (Mitsubishi) Champ 5-speed. (Yes, larger than the Honda 600 but
still tiny by American standards) Even with the factory air, that car delivered
mileage that can't be beat by anything you can buy today. It was our primary
family car for several years and 120,000 miles. Then it became my commuter car
for a few years, and then it taught my daughter how to drive and absorbed two or
three years of her punishment.

It never quit (not seriously anyhow, it did need more tinkering than today's
cars). We sold it to some foreign college students with 150,000 miles on the
clock and still running strong.

Vaughn

 

[clare at snyder dot ontario dot canada]

Some of us like small cars. My family's favorite all-time car was "baby", a
1980 Plymouth (Mitsubishi) Champ 5-speed. (Yes, larger than the Honda 600 but
still tiny by American standards) Even with the factory air, that car delivered
mileage that can't be beat by anything you can buy today. It was our primary
family car for several years and 120,000 miles. Then it became my commuter car
for a few years, and then it taught my daughter how to drive and absorbed two or
three years of her punishment.

It never quit (not seriously anyhow, it did need more tinkering than today's
cars). We sold it to some foreign college students with 150,000 miles on the
clock and still running strong.

Vaughn

My youngest daughter learned to drive on a Colt 200. Light, efficient
car but sure not the best example of reliability. I put a lot of hours
into keeping that critter on the road.
My first car was an 850 Mini - 50MPG and 50MPH. It had 196000 miles on
it when I bought it for $60 at 8 years of age.(the car, not me).
Again, not a terribly reliable car, but I learned to be a mechanic
while driving it.
The ultimate light weight car was the 1400 lb Renault R4. Again not
the epitome of reliability, but many went over 300,000 miles with
enough work. Early models were 750cc, later 850, and up to 1100 IIRC
in the last years.

 

[Bruce in alaska]

Some of us like small cars. My family's favorite all-time car was
"baby", a
1980 Plymouth (Mitsubishi) Champ 5-speed. (Yes, larger than the Honda 600
but
still tiny by American standards) Even with the factory air, that car
delivered
mileage that can't be beat by anything you can buy today. It was our primary
family car for several years and 120,000 miles. Then it became my commuter
car
for a few years, and then it taught my daughter how to drive and absorbed two
or
three years of her punishment.

It never quit (not seriously anyhow, it did need more tinkering than
today's
cars). We sold it to some foreign college students with 150,000 miles on the
clock and still running strong.

Vaughn

I always liked my Suszuki Samurai for a small "Get Around" car. My
brothers has 180K miles on it, and he still drives it to work every day.
Mine doesn't get that kind of use, but every mile is an Alaska Bush Mile,
and it has 95K of those on it now. Still gets me thru the BIG SNOWS,
just Spiffy.

 

[Ulysses]

Thanks to many people here I finally understand how to get a 12 volt
alternator to produce over 60 volts! I made a crude field control resistor
from some NiChrome wire and, powered by a 4 HP engine it is doing a fine job
of charging my 48 volt battery bank. I am, however, reluctant to connect
the output of the alternator directly to the field rotor without some
resistance inbetween. Will it damage the field coils if I give it full
power? It stll has the internal, original diodes in there so I'm not going
to try it quite yet in any case. The doides are holding up fine at about 30
amps @ 51 VDC but I suspect they are at their limit. That's about the limit
of 4 HP anyway.

Just for posterity I wanted to say that I've settled on about 10.75 volts to
about 12.5 volts (this increases as the batteries become more charged) going
to the field coils while charging a 48 volt battery bank. I'm using about
14 ohms resistance but this may not be exact because it's too small to read
on my analog meter and I'm not sure my cheap digital meter is correct.