[SEL] What followed me home.

Curt Holland curt at imc-group.com
Thu Sep 2 09:59:09 PDT 2004


Haven't heard much about what followed the Portland pilgrims home this 
year so I'll start with one and then ask a question about it that I need 
some advice on.

At the spring swap meet I bought a synchronous generator that make 60 
cycles 115 volt power at 52 amps continuos. At the fall Portland show I 
was looking for a prime mover for it. I looked at some of the Kabota 
diesels at $900 that were missing the flywheels, starters, and 
alternators. There were also some sweet 2 cylinder Vee, 17HP 
Kiwasakee(sp?) engines for $700.
Then I found her! A WWII vintage Hercules 4 cylinder stand alone power 
plant that ran. It was cheap and best of all, it's a kewl looking motor. 
Looks old, flat head, lots of neat stuff to look at.
So home it followed...
After her poor starter motor took a swim in Lake Portland I figured I 
better take that apart and dry the arm and field windings in the oven. I 
gave the entire engine a good pressure washing and dried the generator 
too. Missy didn't even grumble (much) when I dried the parts in the oven.
Last night I reassembled the starter and generator. Before putting them 
back on I replaced a leaky valve lifter cover gasket with a new home 
made cork one.
At the show the engine seemed to be running very lean so I took the carb 
apart and sure enough there was some old gas gum clogging some tiny 
holes. Everything is back together and she is running great now. (Jim 
Dunmeyer-mine now runs a little rich too-expecially at slower rpms)
I've just finished sketching up an adapter plate to mount the 
synchronous generator to the bell housing of the Hercules motor. I still 
need to design the coupling between the flywheel and the synchronous 
generator.
This synchronous generator does not have a bearing on the input side of 
the shaft. It is designed to be supported by the shaft that is driving it.
On the Hercules engine's flywheel are 4 bolt studs sticking out of the 
face of the flywheel. The there was a plate slid over these studs with 
big rubber bushings/grommets between the studs and the plate. A nuts 
squeezed and expanded the rubber to make it a tight fit within the 
plate. I imagine all this was done to remove power pulses.

It would be a whole lot easier to design a solid coupler from the 
flywheel face to the input shaft of the synchronous generator. But my 
question is, does anyone know if the power pulses are significant enough 
to do damage to the armature windings on the synchronous generator? Was 
this elaborate rubber bushings and floating plate a necessity to make 
the original synchronous generator last? Or was it simply a coupling to 
handle misalignment? I think most car clutches have some sort of springs 
system to remove power pulses.
What are your thoughts?
Curt Holland
Gastonia, NC
P.S. What followed y'all home?
















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