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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - getting a dynamo started

hi everyone. I'm sure this has been asked before but... how does one "splash" a new dynamo to get it going the first time? My midget has a positive earth system. I am fed up with having an "electric" Midget in as much as I daren't drive any further than half the distance that the battery will last!

Many thanks... ...
David Cox

David - See the article, Polarity Change in the Other Tech Articles on my web site at: http://homepages.donobi.net/sufuelpumps/ Ignore the part that tells what wires to change and just do the portion of the procedure that tells how to 'flash' the generator. Once that is done, go to the article, Testing a Dynamo/Generator and follow the instructions to test your generator for proper output. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Excellent tech article David D.
tomshobby

Cut from our website

""to "flash" the dynamo. This process is required to "polarise" the dynamo to the new polarity, it is a simple process and is performed as follows. OK you need a piece of wire long enough to connect the positive of the battery to the small connection on the dynamo. This should just be connected for about 1 second maximum (it will spark a bit) and that is it, dynamo polarised!


Here is the full article on changing polarity from where that was cut

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgcc/midgetreg/positivetoneg.shtml
Robert (Bob) Midget Turbo

After holding out in the name of originality, I recently converted my 1971 to an alternator. The last generator I bought was a new on made in India. It only lasted about 15,000 miles before the brushes were worn out and the front bearing was toast.

As much as I hated to do this, the lights are brighter and the alternator probably weighs 1/3 what the generator does. It is a nice upgrade really.
Glenn Mallory

Glen's mention of the front bearing wearing out prematurely, this most often happens due to an overly tight fan belt. If you have a generator in your car, the fan belt needs to be run very loose or it will put undue strain on the front bearing and worse on the rear bushing. See the article, Keep Your Belts Loose in the Other Tech Articles section of my web site at the sme link as above. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

Thanks for your input, Gents. Dynamo duly "flashed" and away we went.

I wonder what'll break next?
David Cox

This thread was discussed between 23/01/2010 and 25/01/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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