just to say

In message , Shirley Shone writes

If you'd said Lamborghini I would have thought you were having an affair with Ryan Giggs.

Not at the age of 75, I made a bodged up job of sending an email to my friend who thinks we are not in if the car is not there. I had just been reading the newsgroup. Blame it on to a senior moment.

However 40 years ago maybe I could have answered some of the questions that might have been on here if there had been a group then.. I did two night school classes on car mechanics, I learnt how to strip an engine down. Also worked in an auto electricians serving behind the counter. Then as a stock control clerk for car spares at a large garage. Alas I believe there is no need for people who learnt about control boxes and dynamo's. Happy days Shirl

Still in use by a lot of the members of alt.fan.landrover.

I fitted a new dynamo and control box to my Landie about a year ago. When I find the tuits, I'll be servicing the old control box.

Unless you're concerned about originality, I can't see any reason not to convert to an alternator. Cheaper and work better.

At the moment, it's easier and cheaper than rewiring the vehicle, which has a couple of minor wiring problems that are fine for a dynamo, but could wipe out an alternator without warning. When it gets to the point of needing a new loom, then I'll change over. Maybe. Although a system that's worked well for the last forty years is okay by me. And I *like* stuff I can usually fix halfway up a mountain, which I can't do with an alternator, or electronic ignition.

That is exactly my sentiment but when I had a Dynamo on my series 2a it could never keep the battery fully charged especially when off roading, but the alternator made all the difference.

Stephen.

Perfectly understandable when you consider that the best you will get out of a Lucas dynamo set-up is 17 Amps with the engine above 2,500 rpm, and the weediest alternator will give 28 Amps at just above tickover.

Chris

I had porridge for breakfast, hth?

I know the feeling, I'm 77.

Useful kind of g/f for a petrol-head then. :)

When I was in the RAF Grd Elec Maintenance, I and a mate spent half a day adjusting everything in the control box on a 3 Tonner which wasn't charging the battery. Then the Sergeant Tech asked if we'd checked whether the fan belt was slipping. Two red faces...

To be fair though what didn't help was driving down very steep embankments with foot on brake pedal and if it was raining the wipers were also on and the electric coolant fan didn't help either.

Stephen.

You can fix a burnt out armature on a dynamo half way up a mountain? Repair a burnt out coil on simple ignition?

I grew up with both of those. Thank gawd for progress.

No, but I can fix or bypass a damaged regulator box, which I can't do on an alternator. I can also change the brushes if necessary, and have a good go at cleaning up the commutator, all of which cover the normal failure modes for a dynamo. They're also normally soft failures, which give me some warning. The normal failure mode for an alternator (IME) is for it to suddenly and catastrophically fail in a way which means it has to be replaced and have *all* the wiring in the charging circuit checked first, and on one occasion, I had to buy two batteries just to get the vehicle home. An alternator will also stop working if the warning light bulb burns out or comes loose. I've never had that with a dynamo. As for the ignition, I normally have an old coil somewhere in the back which has been taken off before it failed completely, as well as a set of contacts, a condenser and a couple of spare plug leads to go with the fanbelt. Last time the ignition coil failed on top of a mountain, it cooled down enough to work and get me into the nearest town after a while. The replacement (Officially for a Mark 1 Transit, needing a ballast resistor which I just happened to have in my toolbox) lasted about 15 years, and only failed when a fitter bypassed the resistor because "it's not a standard fitment on a Land Rover". It took almost a year after that to fail, mind, as did the Britpart replacement that got fitted.

It has its benefits, but I prefer my car the way it is, thank you very much.

Compare that with a modern, computer controlled vehicle I drive regularly, which suffered for a long time with a gearbox problem that only appeared when I drove over a bump on a right hand bend. It has also recently had to be stopped, turned off at the main switch and restarted when it decided it was overheating. Compare that with an older coach that had an alcohol filled bulb in the enginne block, connected to a pressure gauge to indicate the temperature, and a comletely seperate switch operating a buzzer to tell the driver that the enigne was too hot.