Originally Posted by
unterhausen
I'm going to keep calling it a generator, like people have been doing for the last 100 years. "I wired up my magneto last night" "your what?" " you know, generator" "oh"
The 1961 Ford Galaxy that I had to replace the brushes on was a generator, but the 1965 Ford station wagon that needed a rebuilt alternator, that was not a generator. I learned as a kid the difference.
But my 1960s and 70s vintage British motorcycles, the repair manuals called it an alternator but by definition it apparently should have been called a magneto. They only called it a magneto if there was no battery and no rectifier.
Like you, decades later, I am not going to start calling things different names.