Just curious, Todd.  When you had your alternator run-a-way, did you have a battery or other load on the line.  Yes and you are correct, just because the odds are 1 in 1000,000 does not mean your 1 couldn’t come up tomorrow. And I STILL DON”T use approved plastic fuel cans (or any other kind)  – one refueling fire was enough {:>).

 

Thanks  for providing that info to the list – now others can see alternator over voltage is a possibility with a car alternator and without the modification to the field coil circuit may be impossible to shut down – short of shutting down your engine.

 

  But, if 60 years of experience is not worth anything regarding alternators – then what is experience worth regarding anything.  Like just about everything else in this “hobby”, you are constantly assessing risk (or should be) and I decided the risk of modifying my alternator to eliminate the remote risk (base on my experience) of over voltage was higher than an over voltage condition.  YMMV {:>)

 

Ed. 

 

 

Yeah, that's what I said too Ed, then it happened to me when I was still early in my flight test (on the ground fortunatly).
However after years of carelessly pouring regular old auto fuel from plastic fuel cans, despite all the warnings, I've yet to have a problem. But I did hear of a guy that caught his plane on fire this way.
So yeah, I'm sure it could happen. Hope it doesn't though. It would sure ruin my day.

Could it happen, undoubtedly, however, in 60 + years of driving automobiles, I have never, never had an alternator run wild – the ones that failed,  just died.  So if I can get by another 60 years {:>), then I’ll probably hang up my wings (or who knows perhaps get another pair {:>)

 

Ed

 

Todd C-FSTB RV9 Turbo13B

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