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Originally Posted by MNBoxster
This means, the Alternator does not provide Current directly to any Accessory of the Car, it only supplies current to the Battery, which in turn provides the current to whichever Accessory is running. Happy Motoring!...Jim'99
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That was a good, basic primer for the non-technical. A good read for anyone on the forum.
One minor point... the quoted text above isn't quite correct. The battery has two jobs in life... 1) to start the car, and 2) to act as a capacitor to smooth the ripple in the output of the alternator. The alternator provides power to run the car, and it's accessories, while the motor is running. There is no device to assure that the output of the alternator is
only flowing into the battery, and not directly into the rest of the car.
Think of it this way... you've left your lights on, and the battery is so dead it just barely is able to start the car. Now that it is started however, you can turn on your lights, roll the windows down, crank the stereo, and blow the horn... all at the same time! That's because the
alternator is powering the car, not the battery. The battery is nearly dead, and is being charged by the alternator with part of it's current output, while the rest of the alternator output runs the car.
Hope that helps!
Jack
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