Lister generator

[OldGoat]

Question: how is the alternator wired internally, is it self exciting?

 

Story: As all the lights are going to go out soon, I planned ahead and bought a pretty looking (!) genset on a trailer. It runs nicely (after initial clouds of black smoke) and doesn't miss a beat when a 5KW load is dumped on it.

 

Sadly it's a bit of a whited sepulchre - there are cracks in some of the casings, in particular the louvres at the rear of the alternator. The LHS of this fell off to reveal -

A selenium rectifier - 16 fins

A wire wound resistor

both of which are small-ish about 4 inches long. They're hanging by a whisker, so I'm loth to remove them further.

 

So the questions are

• is this a DC supply to excite the unit?
• What's the voltage likely to be?
• and at what current
• How to I replace it if it fails
• how do I set up a replacement

The unit uses a Lister SR2 nd rated at 7KVa

 

Somebody might know - if not in detail, but general points might be a help.

 

 

 

TIA

 

 

[by'eck]

Suggest you ask your question here - some very knowledgeable Americans who prize British off grid solutions.

[smileypete]

If it's an 'ST head' this site may have some useful info:

 

http://www.utterpower.com/ST.htm

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[OldGoat]

By'eck and SmileyPete - many thanks for the links above, both of which have some very useful pointers.

It's fascinating to see how engines that are considered defunct over here are still in use in other parts of the world - and not limited to what we might consider as 'third world'.

 

When it stops raining I'll take some photos and post on here just in case somebody pops up with something specific to my unit.

For now, one circuit diagram has given me a starter-for-ten, but it's not over yet!