sparks flying

[Randy Richards]

I was wondering if anyone knows the possible causes for sparks flying when I reconnected the battery. I just had the generator rebuilt. the voltage regulator looks as it is original to the 1010 diesel I have. If anyone has an idea I would apppricate knowing. Thank you Randy

[jtrichard]

i hate gen give me an alt any day with that said i have always been told when you put a new gen on you always put new reg on to how bad are the sparks? take the leads off the gen and see if sparks are still there if so youll just have to go on a search and destroy mission till you find it

[440 iron popper]

Hi,

When you connect the negative cable, the spark comes from the generator windings ''power up''. Or any other load present at the moment you touch the battery post. It is typical of Inductive loads like ignition coils, relay coils, transformer windings at power up. They always draw a relatively large amount of energy when voltage is applied to them. A spike also appears when you disconnect a coil supplied by DC voltage. A coil that is de-energized will swap polarity trying to release this energy in the circuit. If you physically pull the wire off an energized dc coil you'll see a good spark. Point ignition is basically based on that. Coil being connected and disconnected at definite timing.
I would not worry about that.