Back in the day, (late 1960s buses) our Leyland Leopards would take several minutes continuous cranking in cold weather, followed by a clouds of acrid smoke.

Rubbish design from the 1960's compared to what exactly ? :shrug:



Fast tickover compared to idle tickover to put a charge into a nearly flat battery is the same you say.


Can I suggest you experiment on your suggestions with a modern alternator with both a voltmeter and an ammeter connected.


Then come back to report that the amps produced is exactly the same at both idle and a high idle.


Volts is only half of the story :shrug:

Up to the late 1970's most vehicles did not charge the battery well at idle. Motorcycles did not at all. When Honda launched the CX500 V-twin in 1978, they made a huge thing of the fact that its alternator charged the battery even at idle.

I dont do well reading a lot of material like that. I'm not good at technical reading, I just cant take all the information in.

macafee2

A bit technical in parts but otherwise not bad.


Remember when you said......... " Fast tick over to put a charge into a nearly flat battery is no better than just letting the engine tick over.--The modern alternators will hold 14.4 volts even at tick over.-- "


And I said .........."Fast tickover compared to idle tickover to put a charge into a nearly flat battery is the same you say.

Can I suggest you experiment on your suggestions with a modern alternator with both a voltmeter and an ammeter connected.

Then come back to report that the amps produced is exactly the same at both idle and a high idle. "


Could I suggest you read the PDF, taking note of Fig. 3 and Fig. 7 where you will find that there is a noticeable increase in current output at higher idle ( fast ) speeds

Did you hope to initiate a discussion on the basis of the paper? If so, to what end?