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vw
Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 3:48 pm
by hal
A bit on the side. In my youth I had an old beetle. For a period the generator was shot so I drove it with what current was left from charging overnight.. It struck me that these engines needed very little current to fire. Must be something about how the coils are rigged?
Just curios if there's some beetleheads out there with this knowledge.
cheers
Re: vw
Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 10:47 pm
by Major Softie
hal wrote:A bit on the side. In my youth I had an old beetle. For a period the generator was shot so I drove it with what current was left from charging overnight.. It struck me that these engines needed very little current to fire. Must be something about how the coils are rigged?
Just curios if there's some beetleheads out there with this knowledge.
cheers
Yeah, the big power suckers are the starter (of course), headlights, and electric motors and electric heaters. Since those old vehicles didn't have rear window defrosters, if you don't run a heater motor or headlights, all the old points ignition vehicles will run a pretty long time, especially if you have some auxiliary power supply at startup, like a battery booster charger, or a second car to jump from.