[TheForge] Generators

[Charle B Vincent]

Sorry, don't know your actual name, but I will say I learn something 
everyday.   And yes, I am sceptical of everything I read on the net, as 
everyone should be.   Personally,  I haven't said your suggestion 
wouldn't work and in fact went as far as to test what I could of the 
procedure before I opened my mouth.     I don't have a unit near me that 
has lost its residual magnetism that I could test the rest of your 
procedure, or I would try it just in the interest of learning more.   
Your comments on rebuilding residual make sense and fit with what I 
know, so that will get stored away for the future.    I questioned the 
connection described because in the past I have always flashed the field 
coil, not the load coil --or whatever you will call it ( while the 
generator is running) as per the instructions that came with my ancient 
Onan generator test set.     Had the post come from a regular that I 
recognized,  I probably would have proceeded differently.  i.e. if 
Frosty said it worked, I would probably would have just thought, "damn 
got to try that someday. "   If it had been Andy, I would have thought 
"Damn, that spam filter still isn't working"   Unfortunately I don't 
recognize your ID, and there was very little context, so I questioned 
it.  Sorry to have offended.   Welcome to theForge.     

Charles

qualityrepairs at bellsouth.net wrote:

>The purpose of flashing the coil is not to restore residual magnetism, but only to excite the generator to produce current.  To rebuild residual, the machine needs to be run, preferable near full load, for a few hours.  Good maintenance would include doing so a couple tims a year.  I try to do that will all of my bigger rental units (20 kva and up) although the large ones are difficult to load near full.  That rebuilds residual.  Brushless generators do sometimes need to be flashed. Dropping generator or striking a field pole will destroy the magnetism in the steel core of any genset.  Magnetism is, afterall the alignmentof the charges in the steel, and a sudden impact will "scramble" that alignment.  I'm glad I've been able to take part in this discussion.  In the future I won't believe nearly all that I read. 
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