OK guys. I know there are brains out there - bear with me a moment while I pick some of them, please
And excuse what, to many of you, will sound like stupid questions
(I have attached a pic of the innards of the gen head at the end where the big capacitor is)
The previous owner has un-wired this unit from its petrol engine using side-cutters; but by looking at the innards of the dog-box and chasing the wires backwards, some things are obvious (I think)
So, firstly, some observations/clues . . . . then, secondly, some questions
Electrical observations:
OK - inside the dogbox there's a paired 35A circuit-breaker, a rotary three-position main switch (which is largely about the electric starting & maybe running the engine without output from the head, perhaps?), a three-pin plug outlet, a voltmeter, an hour-meter and an ammeter. There's nothing odd in there; nothing that might be an AVR or anything like that
Looking at the head, at the shaft end there's a cast cover I could take off for a look, but it looks as if it may be a carrier for one of the bearings and a dust-seal, so I have left it alone for the moment. Of course the bearing may have a carrier behind that, and it may just hold the seal?
Looking inside any of the places I can see, I see no evidence of a slip-ring and brushes (if they are there, maybe they're behind that cast cover I just mentioned?) Maybe the unit is brushless?
Looking at the four black, numbered, wires coming out, I would guess two of them are 230VAC and perhaps two are 12VDC?
Two of them (one and four) go to the top of two halves of the paired 35A circuit-breaker and the corresponding wires coming out of the bottom of it go to (black) the three-pin-plug and (red) the ammeter/main rotary switch
So, since I think I know what one and four do, maybe it's a safe guess that two and three were originally attached to the loom where all the starting gubbins for the Brigs and Stratton live and that they effectively connect to the 12V battery there?
Mechanical observations:
Firstly, there doesn't appear to be any discernable axial or radial play - not that I can feel, and the hour-meter says 150 hours, so maybe things haven't done much work
The input shaft of the head seems to be 22mm with a 6mm key.
I was hard-coupled through a splined coupler to the 16HP Briggs and Stratton
So - enough with observations - now to stupid questions:
Looking at the capacitor end and the ID plate, is that enough for someone to identify the head? Does it have brushes or is it brushless?
If it's brushless, does it care about direction of rotation?
That 22mm shaft seems small, to me. My thought was to just attach a suitable pulley(s). Then I wondered if, since it was direct-coupled, it's maybe not designed to tolerate the radial loads of a belt drive? Could there be direct-couple models and belt-drive models? it seems unlikely, but worth asking
Those four wires suggest maybe it needs 12VDC to excite? Of course I could have that dead wrong. But, if it does, where could I look inside to see which might be pos and which might be neg?
I think that covers it for now. I'd appreciate the fruits of anyone's wisdom and experience
Thanks, Mike