Quote:
Originally Posted by cletrac
Chris, in the instructions it says the captive screws holding the panel in place have to be tight because they form part of the electrical circuit. Therefore the panel must be metal. The only part of the circuit would be grounding for the two condensers that are attached to the back side of the panel.
Thanks for deciphering that part of the instructions.
Those lid catches have me scratching my head. They don't look to be spring loaded. Maybe that's why the bottom one in the picture isn't latched. Gravity took over. The catches must be made of spring steel to hold some pressure to not fall open.
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I suspect the panel is plastic, simply because it would be a lot easier to manufacture that way, and be safer to connect up - touching a battery lead to the panel while connecting up would not cause a short circuit - also it would be more rigid than a thin metal plate. They tended to use uninsulated terminals in non-conducting panels a lot, also it allowed the labels to be engraved and paint filled, rather than having separate labels made and screwed on, and the screws on those cable clips at the bottom would have to go into tapped holes (because nuts on the back of the panel would be impossible).
The condensers will be the block paper type, with mounting lugs on the bottom and probably stud connections on the top.
I think the panel retaining screws have to be tight because there are connections via them between the case and the circuit - if you look at Figure 16 there's a wire to each side from the Regulator (left) and Set (right) negative terminals.
I have some spare parts and spare valve cases for the WS19 and WS18 with that type of retaining clip instead of the toggle clamp variety (also the "spring clip & stud" "hook and stud", etc. There were a lot of variations according to the different manufacturers).
Chris.