[Vwdiesel] Re: Starting a Rabbit D with no battery.

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

I don't remember a better thread for learning new things (for me). Wow. 
Especially about alternators needing external juice to induce the magnetic 
field. It's been an exceptionally good couple of days.

So, I guess Loren's "pluck out the fuel shut-off and apply ether" gets the 
prize for actually starting a Rabbit D in the winter that had no physical 
battery at all. Gotta start carrying a can of ether.....

Thanks Hagar, for getting everybody going again.

Doyt
 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
At 06:50 AM 12/18/2004 -0500, Nick/Val/Loren wrote:
> >
> > Ok my question is this how does the alternator get current going? =
>
>         You need to have enough power to excite the field.  Practically
>         this is 9 to 10 volts in the system.  So a low battery will
>         often have enough, but no battery will simply not work.
>
>         Often, if you jump the car, and your altenator starts getting
>         the battery charging, you can remove the jumpers, and the
>         system will continue to run, charging the battery, and
>         serving the load on the car.
>
>
> > Remember
> > I'm no electrical person but was under the impression that it needs a =
> > little
> > electrical current to start a current across the magnetic field. =
> > Correct?
> > Now a generator can produce it's on current but not an alternator.  =
> > Right?
> > Bare with me guys I'm learning.
>..................................
> > You could do it with a much shorter hill by pulling the shutoff =
> > solenoid out, pulling the plunger out of it and reinstalling the 
> solenoid. Then a =
> > shot of ether and down the hill you go. You shouldn't need much of a hill =
> > that way and with no glow plugs the ether will work.
> >  Loren