On Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 4:32:20 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sat, 17 Jan 2015 13:52:47 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

On Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 12:39:11 PM UTC-8, Boating All Out wrote:
In article ,
says...


Here's a link that works.

http://tinyurl.com/njrwkpk


Exactly. In the early 90's there were several experimental Buick's running around for testing. They neither had a starter or alternator on them. The idea of no starter was that the crank position sensor would know which piston had just gone over TDC and when you hit the key would inject bit of fuel and spark turning the engine over then typical ignition would occur.

You still need compression.

Now how they got away from a standard belt driven alternator was they took lessons off of Ford at the turn of the last century, (or a common Briggs engine) and they mounted magnets on the transmissions torque converter which swung by a high energy rectifier, regulator pac. putting out approx 140 amp at 15 volts.

We outboard folks are familiar with that. It is how outboard charging
systems generally work.

From what I understand, or don't was that it was a fairly fool proof idea but was too costly to promote, and there was a concern of safety of the engine running in high or flood waters causing high ac voltage to turn loose on the occupants so it was tabled.

Any more than a regular alternator?

Greg I believe so. There was a fear of leaks in the high energy coil. The thing was to put out some kind of extremely high AC in which the rectifier would DC it. I really think being designed properly it would have been alright but they didn't ask my opinion.

But removing the standard alternator, would have freed up more space and been one less wheel to turn which would also increase fuel efficiency for the application..