[Milsurplus] A generator question...

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

This may be the wrong forum for these questions, but this forum has such a wide variety of 
very skilled people here that I thought I would try here first.

Many of you may know of the PE-95 generator, a 10 KW unit powered by a jeep engine. 
Although it is very reliable, it is also very large, and uses a lot of fuel. One of its main uses 
was with the SCR-399/499 series of stations which was a BC-610 and two BC-312s 
mounted in a small house on a 2 1/2 ton truck with 4 ea 30 foot whip antennas mounted on 
each corner of the house. The PE-95 was mounted on a separate trailer which was hauled 
behind the duce and a half. I still have a complete manual for the SCR-499 here.

The PE-95 used a somewhat unique method of starting the gasoline engine: it "motored" the 
generator by applying 12 VDC from two large 6 VDC batteries connected in series, to the 
field winding of the generator. The generator would then act like an electric motor and turn 
the armature, which was connected to the jeep engine, eventually starting it. The process 
was totally silent in operation. The field winding then would also charge the batteries.

As I remember it, this "motoring" action by the generator was actually fairly weak, but the 
generator, being large, did the job.

I once used this same method to start a much smaller PE-75, 2500 watt generator which 
had a 10 HP B&S engine on it. I used a 12V car battery, applying that voltage to the 
terminals of the field winding which were reachable under the cover on one end of the 
generator. The "motor" did not have a lot of torque, and as I remember it, I had to "help" it 
get past the first compression-stroke of the engine, but once past that point, it did the job 
just fine.

I now own a more modern generator, a Champion Power Equipment 5500 watt job, which I 
have had for 10 years, and which uses a 11 hp single-cylinder Honda clone which is started 
by means of a rope and recoil mechanism.

I recently was given the schematic diagram for this generator, and see that it is NOT an 
"inverter" type, but is a genuine real generator with two "Main" windings, a  "Field WInding", 
an "Exciter winding" (which feeds an Automatic Voltage Regulator module), and an auxillary 
"DC winding" which provides 12VDC (hrough an internal full-wave bridge rectifier) to charge 
a battery.

So....I am wondering if anyone here has attempted to use the field winding of such a 
generator to "motor" it, and if so, what were your results?

I would like to arrange this generator for remote and automatic start/stop, but there is no 
provision on the engine block for a starter-motor. I do have one other possible means to 
modify this generator for electric start, but thought I would begin my project by asking here 
the above questions.

Ken W7EKB

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