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The part poking out the left is the fuel pump (petrol or diesel, depending which head you fit) and the bit on the right is the magneto AFAIK Yep - the part of the right is a magneto. I'm out of practice and Google-fu is weak tonite, but... There's no "live" wiring needed for these as they are self-contain spark generators What you do get is wire to a "kill switch" which stops it sparking... with me so far ? Brown (Bakalite?) endcap on yours will have a contact inside in the center onto the rotating armature, and the wire to the antique toggle switch controls if you get a spark. Switch up=run, down=off (or vice versa) - any label near the switch? Multimeter time, when switch earths that wire = "Kill", toggle so it's not earthed to get "Run" Remove the bakalite end cap to see the points & cam, works opposite of a car as points spin inside an oval surround, easy to see how points work once cap is off. Ignition timing can be fine-tuned by rotating the end-casing of the magneto, that's what the pointer & locating pag/scale coming out of the top of mag is for Now the bad news - magnetos often fail (especially in damp storage), capacitors are built inside the spinning armature and repair/replacement is very difficult for DIY. If you remove the unit and spin the core by hand you should get a decent spark - problem is retiming it may be a pig of a job (and if it's timed right now - do you want to risk loosing the settings?) Magnetos came with various fixing options, yours is "platform mounted" - for future Google searches .. and 2 types of construction "moving magnet" or "moving coil", from the shape of the body on yours I'd guess it's moving coil (more common - also not as easily fixed as the other) The red / orange cap on top is the HT lead, be gentle as esily damaged if you decide to remove it. If possible remove other end and test-fit a spark plug to check to see if you get sparks when you spin to motor. Google for the following might (or might not) help - BTH / ML / Lucas You should find lots of info based around British motorbikes of the 50's & 60's as most twins that age used magnetos. Not best but to give you an idea www.realclassic.co.uk/techfiles/magneto0912.htmlHope some of it helps, apologies ig this is "Teaching Granny to suck eggs" info
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Feb 12, 2012 11:10:41 GMT
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nomad, rather useful info there! But unfortunately... the pic of the one with the magneto is just one I found on google ;D The "cleaner" pics at the bottom of the 1st page, are the one I'm going to be dealing with - and most of what you see will be discarded anyway, and replaced with electronic ignition, and fuel injection. One plate to hold a normal injector, and another plate to hold a hydrogen injector Would LOVe to play with a big chunky magneto of that size though! Only ever played with the tiny ones on generators. Pics? Dunno how much help you want/need but I find that unpicking the circuit diagrams into individual sections usually helps. Seperate the 3ph, 1ph and DC bits out. The main switch appears to be in the DC area which makes life a little easier. The circuit between the Armature Rectifier to the [A+A-L+L-] terminal block seems to be the bit you need. Any sign of the temrinal blocks? Might be worth seeing if you can chase the wiring back to where it starts if you can. Rich Any help is muchly appreciated! Annoyingly, there's NO wiring, beyond the pic of the chopped off wires, no connectors/etc By Following the wiring, it's fairly easy to decode what all the symbols mean however: R Y B N E - 3 phase input L N - 2 phase (split from the 3phase) WP (x3) 3phase water pump motor - still got this pump, so will keep it! AH (x2) air heater - 2phase, again, will try to keep this in one form or another, as it's good to simulate a hot engine bay F+ F- Field control OH (x2) Oil heater - integral part of the engine, so yups, that's staying! lol OP (x2) oil pump - I've got a feeling this one is mechanical though, so this may be redundant wiring? IGN (x2) obviously, ignition. This will power the ECU 9v (x2) a rather random 9v source? P/s (x2) push switch, to activate the DC circuits SOL (x2) Solonoid output, quite possibly for the fuel pump according to the wiring labels A+ A- armature supply L+ L- Connection to the load (that big- transformer) Going to be honest... never actually thought about contacting Ricardo directly.. I'm a bit special like that at times
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Last Edit: Feb 12, 2012 11:18:19 GMT by chairchild
You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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Feb 12, 2012 11:14:18 GMT
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2 mins of googling later, and I find their damned website! (which never comes up when you search for this engine??)
3 UK locations, closest being Warwickshire, and no email address listed on their website. what with it being a sunday, leaves me kinda "idle" until I can phone them up
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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scruff
Part of things
Posts: 621
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Feb 12, 2012 11:30:23 GMT
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The 9V might be ignition supply, a low voltage coil would be 9v I think?
First thing I would do is get an insulation tester and start zapping things.
It doesn't look like anything that will suffer from 500V insulation test but it would confirm it's safe. I've got an ancient hand cranked thing but you must be able to find a proper modern one. Someone must have a Megger, just zap each heavy cable in turn and see if there is any leakage to earth.
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1994 Lotus Esprit - Fragile red turbo with pop up lights. 1980 Porsche 924 - Fragile red turbo with pop up lights.
I spy a trend...
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Feb 12, 2012 13:10:22 GMT
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^Not a bad plan.
Is there any description of the function of the main switch in all the bumf that came with it? Eg that it has off, start, and running/loaded positions? With that sort of information it would be fairly easy to work out what does what. I'd imagine that it's a double-pole double-throw switch to connect the armature to either the variable DC supply rectified from the mains, or the load.
As you no doubt are aware, the rest of it's fairly simple, once you know that a Regavolt is a variable trasformer or Variac. The output of the 3-phase armature one is rectified and fed to the, erm, armature (via the main switch) for motoring. The field one is rectified and fed to the field for altering the output when running to DC machine as a load. You'd probably set the field current to maxiumum for starting operation - but I expect that's covered in the manual.
The most confusing thing is the preponderance of wires coming from the DC machine - I would have expected 5 (A+, A-, F+, F-, Earth), although I suppose there may be temperature sensors in there - or the armature wires might perhaps be doubled-up. Also, does it have forced-air cooling fan driven by a separate motor? It's not uncommon on something that you want to run a high output and low rpm where a conventional shaft-driven fan would be useless.
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beejay
Part of things
Posts: 198
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Feb 12, 2012 17:45:30 GMT
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2 mins of googling later, and I find their damned website! (which never comes up when you search for this engine??) 3 UK locations, closest being Warwickshire, and no email address listed on their website. what with it being a sunday, leaves me kinda "idle" until I can phone them up I used to work at Ricardo in Leamington (warwickshire), however they don't do any engine work there (or at least they didn't at the time). May be better off ringing the Shoreham office for info on this.
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Feb 12, 2012 19:38:11 GMT
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First thing I would do is get an insulation tester and start zapping things. It doesn't look like anything that will suffer from 500V insulation test but it would confirm it's safe. I've got an ancient hand cranked thing but you must be able to find a proper modern one. Someone must have a Megger, just zap each heavy cable in turn and see if there is any leakage to earth. any excuse to use the uni's equipment, is a good plan by me! ;D Is there any description of the function of the main switch in all the bumf that came with it? Eg that it has off, start, and running/loaded positions? With that sort of information it would be fairly easy to work out what does what. I'd imagine that it's a double-pole double-throw switch to connect the armature to either the variable DC supply rectified from the mains, or the load.
There are indeed instructions, but only say to selecet certain setting, not which position number/etc. Will Upload a copy later tonight hopefully
As you no doubt are aware, the rest of it's fairly simple, once you know that a Regavolt is a variable trasformer or Variac. The output of the 3-phase armature one is rectified and fed to the, erm, armature (via the main switch) for motoring. The field one is rectified and fed to the field for altering the output when running to DC machine as a load. You'd probably set the field current to maxiumum for starting operation - but I expect that's covered in the manual.
pretty much covered on how to control it from the instructions, but physically how that relates to the wiring, I'm not 100% on yet
The most confusing thing is the preponderance of wires coming from the DC machine - I would have expected 5 (A+, A-, F+, F-, Earth), although I suppose there may be temperature sensors in there - or the armature wires might perhaps be doubled-up.
Yups, confuses the hell out of me too!
Also, does it have forced-air cooling fan driven by a separate motor? It's not uncommon on something that you want to run a high output and low rpm where a conventional shaft-driven fan would be useless.
Again, no idea! But the Head of engineering said we'd simply tear it apart to get the connections if it comes to it
And thanks for the heads up beejay
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Last Edit: Feb 12, 2012 19:41:13 GMT by chairchild
You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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Dec 31, 2013 20:33:56 GMT
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Hello my name is Sadiq, I am interested in your project which was Ricardo E6 variable compression engine please can I view the project report.
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unfortunately, it seems I'd taken on far too much that year, so it never really progressed beyond the research I did that's shown here I'm afraid
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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Feb 28, 2016 12:23:32 GMT
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Hello my name is Sadiq, I am interested in your project which was Ricardo E6 variable compression engine please can I view the project report. Dear Mr Sadiq have u any dacuments about Ricado E6 Engine? TNKs
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Feb 28, 2016 21:12:28 GMT
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I know this is an old thread, but I'm pretty sure that 'transformer' is an induction regulator. These are used to control the speed of brushed 415vac motors, at work we still use these to control some material feeders. They are old but are pretty reliable. By today's standards these are a totally obsolete method of speed control. What' I personally find odd about this system is that it draws more current the slower the motor turns. I have a wiring diagram for the power side if you are wanting to resurrect yours? I think the principle is that the induction regulator acts as a 1:1 transformer, the rotor in the induction regulator is on a pivot and can turn 90degrees, this alters the phase angle of transmission and determines how much power goes to the motor and how much is dissipated by the field opposing itself.
If it is an induction regulator, then it will use x9 cores, x6 yo the brush boxes (from the induction regulator) snd x3 cores to the field windings, it looks like you have x9 cores and an earth so that would make sense?
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Last Edit: Feb 29, 2016 12:52:36 GMT by fuldatramp
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Feb 28, 2016 23:52:33 GMT
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I missed this originally, any idea what became of it chairchild?
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Sorry for the quality, it was one I drew myself, I hope it helps
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Well I do like to visit my uni occasionally, I actually visited last week - and whilst it's been moved, nobody still has the slightest idea WTF they're doing with it! fuldatramp, I'll throw that info at one of my old tutors - he may have a student interested in the project next year with any luck
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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No problem, here's a small article about induction regulated variable speed drives, top10electrical.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/induction-regulators.html?m=1A quick look in the top of the induction regulator should let you know if it is one or if it's just a transformer because in an induction regulator the hand wheel should be able to turn the rotor through 90degrees, in a transformer the secondary windings will be fixed in position (or more commonly the transformer will have both primary and secondary windings wrapped around a common iron core) either way the transformer shouldn't have any moving parts, but may have different tapping points with link pieces If you need any help I might be able to get some more photos or something? looking at your profile you live in the same town as me, what Uni do you work at SHU? I work at the power station at Retford so not overly far,
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Haha, I don't work at the uni (even though I keep being heavily hinted at going into teaching!) It's Manchester Metropolitan Uni, so a reasonable trek away.
No idea what my profile says atm - but recently moved to Birdwell (Barnsley)
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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olii
Kinda New
Posts: 1
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Mar 20, 2016 17:09:47 GMT
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I know this is quite an old thread but was wondering if you could help, I am currently doing a project on the same engine, do you have any compression ratio calibration data? Ours is missing unfortunately.
Thanks
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Mar 20, 2016 21:22:15 GMT
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none whatsoever I'm afraid I'm quite annoyed at myself, as I usually take SEVERAL pictures of anything of interest, but I only took a couple of pictures of that document? Here's the only other picture I have, that wasn't uploaded with the rest, the contents page
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You're like a crazy backyard genius!
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Feb 22, 2020 19:47:56 GMT
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I know this is an old thread but......Are there any Ricardo E6 owners out there? If so, It would be great to hear from you
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