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To Pete Cavitt. When I was installing my alternator, I had a
conversation with Bob Nuckolls, of Aeroelectric Connections, about
the desireability of an alternator blast-tube for cooling. I had
planned to install one but Bob was adamant about it being more
detrimental than helpful because of the chance of introducing water
into the alternator if you should fly through rain (hard to avoid,
sometimes). You might figure out a way to make a centrifugal water
separator as part of the ducting but it's probably more trouble than
it's worth. I have one of the small 30 amp experimental units (don't
remember the brand right off, but it's the one from Spruce) and have
had no trouble with it in more than 460 hours, without applying any
direct cooling. While the environment under the cowl is pretty harsh
from our point of view, the materials in an alternator probably aren't
stressed much by them - even the silicon rectifiers should stand up
to 125 C and the wire, steel and aluminum parts higher still.

Cheers,

Dan Schaefer


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