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On 29 Jul 2002, at 21:36, Dave Hall wrote: > It's worth appreciating that if it's only the generator, a freshly charged > battery can take you quite a way unless you need lights, particularly for a > carbed motor; the coil only needs a couple of amps for the spark and a bit to > keep the auto-choke open. I ran my Variant quite a distance when the regulator > failed, even with lights for part of the time. I guess this may be something > where the carbed version would do better than the FI though, which needs more > electrical power and would probably begin running roughly after a little while. I had always thought the same thing, but a few years ago my generator belt broke just outside of Chicago. I was already on my way home, so I decided to see how far I could get, on the theory that the closer I got to home the more likely I would be to get my wife to bring me a belt and my tools. 150 miles and 3 hours of warm daytime driving later, I pulled up into my driveway, still under my own power. I hadn't used the lights, radio, or wipers, but I was still surprised that it made it all the way. As a test, I tried the starter after I had shut down in the driveway and the engine started up instantly. I don't think it was at all close to its limit. The battery was just a very standard Sears group 42 DieHard. - Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <type3-off@vwtype3.org> For more help, see http://vwtype3.org/list/