Hey Fish,
I'm not exactly sure what all Jerry did, but in an email exchange he told me he replaced the bell ends that contain/hold the bearings and a few other things. One obvious change is the front bearing plate is now a plumbing flange with a PVC thread-in coupling over the motor shaft. I slid the blade hub up real close to this. He wrapped the housing in that super aluminum tape and placed a drain hole to release any trapped water from penetration or condensation.
I am going to run a bead of silicone, high temp red, around the bell ends where they join the motor housing in a few days when I finally get ready to raise my crank-up tower. I may also cover the bolt heads with a dab of sealer. I also plan on a shroud to keep direct exposure to the rain to a minimum. I feel the water issue is now in the past. I also need to make a nice heat sink (which I have salvaged from a huge old Curtis-Mathis console TV) and mount for the rectifiers. I can't find any nice flexible 4 conductor wire to bring the AC down the tower, so I'm going to have to rectify up on the tower. I;m a little afraid to use something like 4 conductor nomex becauseit's so stiff, but maybe I shouldn't be. Robust over-rated diodes should handle this, but I'm a little concerned with loses in the 50' run, from the bottom of the tower, to the batteries. Maybe it isn't an issue, but when all the wire run is added together the line losses in a 12V system starts to add up.
Yesterday afternoon and into the night we had some serious gusts, the trees were whipping and roaring, and when I awoke this morning my batteries were at a nice 13.7V. Normally we go down to around 12.8V overnight.
Hopefully Jerry will see this and respond himself. All I know is the alternator spins much more freely, and I am getting something actually useful out of the crappy wind site I have for the first time ever.
I'm a happy camper! I will post picts in a new diary entry when things are getting a little more finalized.
