[Mgs] [Spridgets] Electrical Saga & A+ engines

[mgbob at juno.com]

Hi Dave,
  I have followed the saga, though without any ideas of my own to offer.
  You said that you might change to an alternator. What do you calculate your
night-time electrical draw to be?
  My TD has the dynamo still, 18A on this later TD. Headlamps are original
1953 sealed beams that are quite bright, fortunately. The one non-stock change
I made was to use LED tail light bulbs.  These turned out to be as bright as
LBC's halogens, but with a fraction of the power requirement and heat, and I
find that ammeter is + above 2200 rpm with lights, heater, wipers and lights
on.  Routinely I shut off headlamps at stoplights, but that's just my idea of
saving a watt/amp.
Bob


---------- Original Message ----------
From: dwoerpel <dwoerpel at wi.net>
To: spridgets at autox.team.net, MGs <mgs at autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Mgs] [Spridgets] Electrical Saga & A+ engines
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:25:19 -0500

Ahhh yes.  The simple answer to your (and several others) question  is,
I'm deranged and stubborn.  I'm one of those originality people that
when I found out the generator that came with the car when I purchased
it was dated a bit before the build date of the car, I had to keep it.
It has the screw on connectors rather than Lucar (spade) connectors and
I like those better anyway.  The rear plate has the nylon insulation and
but would prefer the phenolic.

You are correct, I have 12 generators lying around, 3 of which have the
tach drive rear plate for the Bugey and MkII Sprite (MkI Midget).  All
are Lucar connections (except the tach drive units) and their front
plates have a longer distance between mounting holes, which I find
interesting, but I would then need a longer adjustment arm.  Apparently
the one on my MGA is shorter (may not be original?  Barney?).

The REAL answer is: I DO NOT like throwing parts on the car if I do not
know the underlying cause for the problem.  I wasn't sure if it was the
generator as it checked out in the shop.  It could have been the control
box and Bob Jeffers and I did all we could over the phone.  He offered
to check out both the generator and his control box and that is what I
was going to do until I had the "just-one-more-look" moment.   In short
(pun intended), I didn't want to blow some other part.  If this were 45
years ago and the car my sole transport, I would've thrown parts at it.

I may very well change to an alternator in future.  I drive my cars,
they are not trailer queens.  When I look at another person's car and
see an alternator, I think, "Yes! This car is driven and the owner
probably doesn't have the drama of driving long distances or after dark
that I do.  When I see a generator on a car I assume the poor owner
suffers from much the same affliction as I or doesn't want to change
over for whatever reason.

I'm not defending my position at all...I know it's "just me".  :-)

What a great list we have.  AND thanks to all who answered my queries
about A+ engines.  I was doing well until Daniel threw in the bit about
about the Morris Ital A+ engine not having 11 studs. I'll have to dig up
that book.

Regards,
Dave W.



On 7/26/2012 7:16 AM, lotuspilot at frontier.com wrote:
> Dave,
>
> Interesting read - all parts of it.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.
> However, all through the read, I kept wondering why you didn't simply toss
the
> generator and install one of the five or six that are undoubtedly sitting
on
> the shelf way in the back of your garage?
>
> Mike
> ________________________________
> From: dwoerpel <dwoerpel at wi.net>
> To: MGs
> <mgs at autox.team.net>; Spridgets at autox.team.net
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012
> 3:25 PM
> Subject: [Spridgets] Electrical Saga part 3 of 3
>
> PART 3
_______________________________________________

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