I have been wanting a generator for a while to use when we get our multiple yearly hurricanes around here. I really didn’t have the money to go out and buy a ready made one so as usual I started looking around for what I could to do my way.

I found a yard edger in the local pawnshop down the street that they only wanted $40 for. I checked it out and the little 2 hp gas engine ran fine. I went ahead an got it figuring if the gen idea didn’t pan out I could always use it for one of my trike designs.

I already had a marine deep cycle type battery and an alternator that someone had traded me a while back in exchange for a 1hp dc treadmill motor. He was building a windmill and the car alt needed too many rpm’s for what he wanted to do. I think it’s a standard GM type.

I found the information in the pic below somewhere on the net when I was looking for a wiring diagram. I had copied it out on a sheet of paper. I drew the pic below from my info and I’m pretty sure I have the wiring correct but you might want to ask a mechanic before hooking one up yourself.

I had to use the top diagram for this particular alternator. I have seen pictures on the net where others have done the same thing and I seem to remember one site where you can buy a ready made bracket to mount on the engine and alterator but that wouldn’t work for me. The engine turns in the opposite direction of the alternator so I had to mount them facing each other.

I used pullies and a belt instead of connecting them directly because an alternator works better when it runs at high speed and I needed to change the ratio to do that. I thing the pully on the alt was 2 inches and I have a bigger one on the motor (3.5 I think – a junk box find)