charging system

        AULTINATORS 

-The alternator is was runs all electrical systems and components while the car is running. this is achieved through the battery and the alternator working together, sending signals to one another so that all electrical components can be run.

TERMS AND COMPONENTS 

-the rotor- turns the electromagnit. rotating magnit 

-statar windings- goes around the rotor and is the conductor of the current.

-rectifire- changes/converts ac to dc in the magnit

to do this it uses dioeds.

-diod- one way valve- passes through current one way and not the other

-regulator- controls the amount of volts coming through the battery to be generated by the alltinator by taking signils from the battery. 

- exitor wires- sapply current to the rotors and create the magnit

- to test the alltinator you test the battery with dc volts. normal battery fully charge 12.6 v. the aultinator gives it 13v with no load. half a v more. when the load is put on eg lights and radio the v goes up to around 14.5v.

cooling fan- cools the rectivire. this to cool the diods that heat up

3 diods and one common = 3 phase- 3 positive and 3 negitive and 1 common

                                                        ON CAR TEST

First check is visual. are all warning lights and electricals turned of. check if all wires and connects are good. check alternators belt tension.

Ours passed all these tests. both battery and alternator were a visual pass.

next test is the usal OCV on the battery. ours was at 12.47v. our regulator voltage reading was 14.51v. the spec for this was 13.5 to 14.5. pass.

we then checked the no load amps. ours was 6.5. the spec for this was 5 to 12a for a carburettor. pass. if it had been fuel injected the spec is 10 to 18a. that would have been a fail.

Then we did the load test on the alternator. the charging voltage under load spec = OCV + 0.5V. ours = 14.35. our amps read at 48. this was a pass. 

To carry out this text we had to start the engine, turn on the fan (as the acesorry) and rev the engine up to 2500rpm. using the clamp meter we clamp it arounf output wire B and take the first reading we see.

Our final test was a voltage drop test. 

To test voltage drop we use a multimeter and check the drop between the batery and the altinator while reving the engine to 1500rpm

- drop test 1- B, positive to A output - spec = less than 0.20v - result = 0.07 - pass

- drop test 2 - B, negative to A body - spec = less than 0.02v - result = 0.02 - pass

- drop test 3 - add all drop test reading together for total voltage drop- spec = max allowed 0.40v - result = 0.09 - pass

Summer of the tests we did on the alernator showed us that it was in good running order. all tests that were done on it met spec and passed.