1942 Piggyback Exciter. How to run outside of lathe. stand alone.

Morning all!

My MG unit (1942 10EE) has been making a racket. Turns out the piggyback exciter main motor shaft has been spinning in the inner races of the bearings. I have replaced the bearings and gently knurled the shaft where the bearing ID rests. Looks like the fix (temporary at best) is fully functional. shaft and bearing fit seems pretty good actually. I will plan on running this way until is goes bad and then pull the shaft again and weld and grind the bearing journals. For now, the fix will do.

The exciter I have has three wires. 2 larger wires marked 1, 2. and a smaller wire that I cannot read the label on, but it connected to another wire via a nut/bolt and then electrical taped over.

I would like to run the exciter to use commutator stone to clean, but do not know if I can just run 110vac to the exciter and expect it to run?

Is it safe to power the exciter (on the bench) on AC? if so how do I wire?

Will I damage magnetisim etc by ruinning the exciter on the bench?

Thanks for your time.

Nate in Ann Arbor MI.

NO NO NO it is a DC motor ( generator) hook the field and arm in parallel and hook it to your DC welder, will spin like a top...Phil

Some extra security on your knurled shaft would be too add some red lock-tite. With the knurl you could go around the edge and the lock-tite may draw in under the bearing. You may be fine as it is.

Phil in Montana said:

NO NO NO it is a DC motor ( generator) hook the field and arm in parallel and hook it to your DC welder, will spin like a top...Phil

Click to expand...

Than ks so much. Appreciate you chiming in.

"Good f**king grief!"

Dude....

What's the reason that you're not just putting the exciter back onto the motor/generator (MG) and using the MG to drive the exciter, via the belt? There's no reason to not do it that way.

I don't like the idea of trying to run the exciter as a DC motor. Too many chances to make a mistake and destroy the exciter. Much better to belt drive it from an external source.

Cal
----

There is so much to learn from people on this site! Makes me wish for a YouTube discussion along with a Q&A where we take one of these things out of the machine, run it in on a stand where all is visible - safety foremost - and teach about the system. It's repeated over and over they'll (Ward Leonard systems) run virtually forever but we keep seeing the same types of questions repeated over and over again. Would be a great resource.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the assistance.