The Alternator

The Alternator

For a while, one of the jobs to do right before starting the motor was to plug in one of the alternators. It's the bigger one, the 100 amp one. The one that wasn't broken in Trizonia. We had to plug it in because if we left it plugged in when the engine was off, it drained the batteries. This was the battery drain that we had been looking for since Florida. We have now successfully tracked down the problem. There is a secondary ignition switch in the aft lazerette, which is usually inaccessible because of the external gas bottles. We have discovered that it is this switch, not the primary ignition switch on the panel, that turns off the alternator circuit. Dad decided to put in a switch to control the alternator circuit, which will be much more accessible than the secondary ignition switch and less dangerous that plugging in and taking out a live wire.
--Orion
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