I?ve looked, perhaps not exhaustively, for best practices for testing alternators at annual inspection. Essentially nil. Given growing dependence on our electrical systems, I?m somewhat surprised.
I?ve been hooking up an oscilloscope occasionally and checking the waveform of the alternator ripple. Once you do it a time or two, and diagnose a few of your kid?s broke down cars, it is fairly simple and obvious what is good and bad. It also provides some peace of mind knowing that all of your diodes and windings, not just enough to get you by, are functional.
These tools are now cheap and easy to use. I can?t think of a reason not to incorporate this element into our annuals and diagnostic processes for electrically dependent planes. Like boresopes, scales, RF equipment testers, there ought to be one and someone who knows how to use it, at every Vans based airport!
I?ve been hooking up an oscilloscope occasionally and checking the waveform of the alternator ripple. Once you do it a time or two, and diagnose a few of your kid?s broke down cars, it is fairly simple and obvious what is good and bad. It also provides some peace of mind knowing that all of your diodes and windings, not just enough to get you by, are functional.
These tools are now cheap and easy to use. I can?t think of a reason not to incorporate this element into our annuals and diagnostic processes for electrically dependent planes. Like boresopes, scales, RF equipment testers, there ought to be one and someone who knows how to use it, at every Vans based airport!