Handy hint

[roofman]

Thought ide share this little hint that worked for me today...I had a Honda suitcase type generator in for repair and the problem from the punter was "it runs but puts out no power". With this in mind i had a root around the stator for broken wires ect plus the normal checking of power plugs and could,nt find anything to the eye so it got left on the bench and i got onto something else....Got talking to a guy today and the instructions off him were as follows
1..Start the generator and plug a drill into the power out socket.
2..put a piece of round or hex bar into the chuck.
3..put a strong cordless drill on the other end so the drills are conected by there chucks end to end.
4..pull the trigger on the 240V drill at the same time as running the cordless drill clockwise so in effect your running the main drill backwards till you feel drag.
5..take off the cordless drill and now try the main drill and in my case it worked and continues to work every time its tried....My only persumption is its powered the exciter circut in someway on a permanant basis, without me Googling can anyone explain how its fixed??.

 

[roofman]

The alternator relies on a small amount of residual magnetism to 'kickstart' the excitation voltage.

This magnetism degrades if it's not used for a random amount of time.

In effect, you are using the drill as a generator to provide this voltage - once it's run the magnetism 'sticks around' for a while again...

Need to be a bit careful doing it that way though, if the mains drill catches you out you'll have a cordless drill on a spinning stick

Another way that works in a lot of cases is to skip the cordless drill - plug a mains drill into the generator, hold the trigger and operate the throttle linkage by hand to defeat the governor and rev the engine.

yea i tried that old chestnut and it never worked...thanks for reply

 

[wristpin]

Another way that works in a lot of cases is to skip the cordless drill - plug a mains drill into the generator, hold the trigger and operate the throttle linkage by hand to defeat the governor and rev the engine.

Don't think that just plugging in and revving the genny will work, the mains drill has to generate to restore the magnetism, but you don't have to drive it with another drill: just flicking it over usually does the trick

 

[skotl]

Worked on mine.

But I had 1.5vac from the 240 socket.

Not enough to get the process going without over-revving it to get the voltage up.

The plugged in drill turned really slowly for a second then ramped up in speed as the excitation process built up.

Now it works fine, uses it just the other day to boil the kettle after a goose flew into the 11kv lines in the field out t'back

How did the goose taste?

 

[wristpin]

Worked on mine.
But I had 1.5vac from the 240 socket.
Not enough to get the process going without over-revving it to get the voltage up.
The plugged in drill turned really slowly for a second then ramped up in speed as the excitation process built up.
Now it works fine, uses it just the other day to boil the kettle after a goose flew into the 11kv lines in the field out t'back

Can understand that as there was some life in the genny but in that situation did plugging in the drill play any part or was it just the over revving that did the trick?
We used to get a lot of power cuts due to kamikaze swans hitting the lines, hence the reason for the Lister in the shed !

 

[Bill Edwards]

How did the goose taste?

Perhaps a little overcooked...?