I can tell you with all the certainty of someone who tried this in a science
museum once, that if you have a generator driven by a bicycle, and you flip
on a hair dryer plugged in to said generator, it becomes VERY hard to pedal.

I would expect something similar in an alternator, but they didn't have one
of those at the museum so I don't know. :)

Actually I guess it could have been an alternator in the museum.  I was
using "generator", above, in the sense of "that which generates electricity
from spinning something" sense, not in the "I actually know that an
alternator is a magnetic field spinning by static wires and a generator is
the other way around and I didn't just learn that on
http://www.differencebetween.net/" sense.

mike

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Don Hanson <dhanson928@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Daryl Christensen
> <daryl@aatransaxle.com>wrote:
>
> > Often the load from cranking the engine will make the belt squeal for a
> bit
> > if the belt is a tad loose.
> > Till the alt gets some charge going and reduces the alt load then its
> > peachy.
> >
> > Daryl of AA Transaxle
> > 425-788-4070
> > "On the cutting edge of Old technology"
> > 86 Syncro Westy w/Turbo Zetec in the trunk
> >
> >
>
>   So (thanks, BTW Daryl) am I correct in supposing that the load on the
> belt, the mechanical load it must rotate, is higher when the current draw
> demands more electricity from the alternator?   I have only a vague idea of
> how an alternator functions.
>
>  When the battery or the operating engine "wants" a large load, either to
> re-charge after a prolonged cranking start, or when you have every
> electrical widget running in the vehicle, is that alternator 'harder to
> turn'?  If so, then it sort of makes sense the belt might slip a little,
> then 'get a grip' as the load at the pulley diminished.
>
>  Don Hanson
>