Trying to find out.. A Mag need no battery to function What about a Dist. ? Reason I ask is cause if your battery is dead you can push start your car and teh Dist works ( even though no electric ) and teh car starts and runs also I have seen cars started and the the battery taken out and it still runs. So if a car will always be push started can it use just a Dist. ?
A Dist will only run with an alt on the car. The alt will put out enough juice to keep it running. If it has a generator it will not!
If your talking about your dragster, you could run a dist and then run a small motorcyle battery to power it. An ignition system only draws a couple of amps.
I may be wrong, but I believe that the alternator is going to rely on battery power to supply the field current, where the generator has a permanent magnet field, and can supply power to the coil, without external power from a battery. If this is a dragster application, your best choice from a weight/cost standpoint will be a distributor and smaller motorcycle battery, as Gas Pumper suggested. A mag is the best choice, but cost is definately a factor.
A distributor needs a alternator to work, a mag creates its own spark, you have to ground out a mag to shut the car off unless you run it out of gas.
All a mag is is a distributor with a built in generator. So, yes, you can run a dist and gen and push start it, but you're going to have to get it rolling right along to get enough output to fire it.
No !! any size generator would do the job. BUT along with the generator you will also need a voltage reg. to go with it. The generator needs to be spinning 1000-1200 rpm before it starts making much power. Bottom line a Mag or a small battery!!
ok I may be missing something here,,but what would the difference be between what you do to push start a regular car ?? and a Regulator is no big deal
And just for another note, a contact point distributor draws approx 3 amps in stock form. A GM HEI electronic for example will draw 5.5-6 amps. A MSD with a box and low resitance coil needs 10 amps plus!!!
When you push stert a "Regular" car it has a battery in it. That battery may not have enough current in it to turn the starter and fire the coil but if you push the car to turn the motor it has enough to fire the coil alone. If you had no battery at all you would not have any current to fire the coil and plugs. In my old altered and my current Bonneville cars I just run a battery and no on board generating system. I have a Honda gas generator to charge the battery between rounds. I could and at times have run a magneto, but I still need a battery because I like to be able to fire the car without push starts.
All the automotive generators I've encountered do not use permanent magnets, instead they use field coils. That way the generator's output can be regulated.... The cores for the field windings may become magnetized, though? I've never checked.
can anybody add anything about Zener diodes, or a Mity Max? I never ran one, but they made 'em for kickstart motorcycles. essentially a battery eliminator that allowed the kickstart to generate enough current in the stock charging system to start the bike with the stock ignition, and then afterwards, to allow the charging system to run the whole electrical system, (lights)
Squirrel, You're absolutely right! Sorry, I apparently had my head up my ass for a bit there! I'd still go with the distributor/small battery setup if it were mine.
buy a mag ...it's much cheaper than the car...if you stick with the same type motor you can use it over and over again..I love 'em...d32
Those systems were used with alternators . The Brit bikes with the alts and Zener diodes also had a flasher sized capactor in the circut. Ran a shit load of BSA-Triumph's set up that way.
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