24-09-2017, 12:55 PM
(23-09-2017, 09:47 AM)Bob Culver Wrote: Precise management of the battery can be a challenge. Yet Ford 8s did not even have the Summer option. I know for decades the battery life on my RP was about 2 years.....
Later on long trips I used to remove the dynamo fuse and switch to Summer, so no charge. (Will not work if car has acquired a complete 4 pole DEL dynamo). I fitted a voltmeter but found I could not take eyes off the road long enough to read!
A digital meter even inside the cabin may not cope with the unsuppressed spark and other noise. An analogue meter fitted with a zener to expand the scale, calibrated from a digital, can be useful. If a dynamo off switch is fitted it should be wired to switch the fileld wire not the output.
Thanks Bob, but I don't understand. Do I understand you to say that if the field fuse is removed, the dynamo will charge in the Winter setting but not in the Summer one? When I remove my field fuse, the dynamo doesn't charge at all, as I would expect.
I have a standard 1932 Lucas CF 35 set up. I have moved the 3rd brush back as far as I can and it charges at about 2A in Summer setting. If I move it any further, it doesn't charge at all in either setting.
Tomorrow I shall take the car for a 50 mile run and hope my troubles have gone away.
Interestingly, some other cars with 3rd brush dynamos have a 'dynamo off' setting ( e.g. Riley 9) for just this reason, but relied on the driver to understand when to use it - or not.
As an aside, it must be a wee bit irritating to be called a Junior Member on the new forum when you have been posting on the old one for as long as I can remember!