SonexBuilders.net

Finally figured out how to get the pictures in the description so see previous post for those.

A detail I forgot to address. I had to rotate the starter 180 degrees to make the starter drive clear the larger rotor. Another good reason to pull the case and di it right from the beginning.

Wingman,
That is a beautiful and adaptive solution to a real problem. I am very impressed.

Thanks for the encouragement Peter. I really hope others will use this solution. I have about 2 flight hours on it since completion a few days ago and all is going well. I now feel like I can venture off cross country without that nagging feeling that I may have an emergency at any moment when the alternator gives out due to being overloaded.

Hey Wingman,
Sounds cool - but I can't see the picture! Interested to see your work though.

Hi Bryan. Check one of the earlier posts about my upgrade. It has all the pictures including the final install.

Update: I now have over 30 hours on this alternator upgrade and it is working perfectly. I am so glad I went through the effort to make this work. I now have a dependable cross-country plane with good electrical reserve power.

Just thought I should post an update on this alternator upgrade thread. I now have over 30 hours since doing this project. It's been a very cold winter here in Minnesota so didn't get to fly it much. It's still working flawlessly with no vibration issues and no movement of my self engineered set up. I am glad I did this project, but still plan to mill out the X-plate to fit the larger rotor the next time I have to pull the engine. Will make a much cleaner installation and reduce a bit of weight.

Wingman wrote:Just thought I should post an update on this alternator upgrade thread. I now have over 30 hours since doing this project. It's been a very cold winter here in Minnesota so didn't get to fly it much. It's still working flawlessly with no vibration issues and no movement of my self engineered set up. I am glad I did this project, but still plan to mill out the X-plate to fit the larger rotor the next time I have to pull the engine. Will make a much cleaner installation and reduce a bit of weight.

This seems like a great idea. I might look into doing this the first time I have to remove the engine from the plane.

On a side note, does anyone know where Sonex sources the stator? I can't seem to match it.

The SDS is a good system. I've run it on a Subaru EJ, Rotax 914, and now a Lyc IO-360. They all idled and made power very smoothly. Be sure not to put off checking the huge fuel filters each year (ask me how know).

Did you ever call them and ask (Ross) if there was anything you could do to reduce the current requirements since you have a much smaller engine than what it can actually handle. I did notice you are not using the ignition - right? That save a few amps.

Would love to do this one day to my Revmaster.