Don,

I am sorry to learn about your loss. I bet you would have had spent quite a bit of time and efforts to get it to a working state. What a shame!

I also have a "Dunlite Model L". I am in the process of restoring it. I bought it in a state of serious injury too as a result of "high altitude" suicide. The propeller shafts were bent beyond repair. I got three new ones machined at a total cost of $310.

The blades and their aluminum blade bases, and the "Bob weights" were beyond rescue too! I am going to carve some wooden blades for them.

I took it apart, cleaned and greased the moving parts. A new coat of paint was applied to the entire machine.

I am not too bother about electricity generating as I already have mains power. The cost of batteries also will take a long time to recover the investment. I am more interested in salvaging a bit of history.

---

Waste not...

Hi all, I have a dunlite wind generator laying in my shed,I was told it a 32volt
one,when i brought it all i wanted was the tower so i could put a AirMarine x400 on it,
I am in Gladstone Qld as i am a 24 volt stand alone system


Cheer`s Ian

You may want to keep to install if the airmarine dies.

  Madness said  

You may want to keep to install if the airmarine dies.
My air marine was installed back in 1999 still going strong

  Quote  

My air marine was installed back in 1999 still going strong

You're lucky. I installed an Air X in 2005 and it only produced power in a howling gale and then spent most of its time turning out of the wind. It was a 24v job. I have since replaced it with a OEM Chinese one that does produce power at significantly lower revs. Maybe I was just unlucky.

---

David M.

Im not sure where you are going with the reply, but dont throw the Dunlite out just yet, because i would expect the tower likely makes as much power as the AirX, they are well known to be close to a useless mill, they spin and make noise but bugger all power on average.

You claim its still going strong, do you have any logged data to show it actually works or do you just think it do, because they have a poor history when it comes to actually producing power, and even more so the 24v ones compared to the 12v version.

On average a F&P mill would sh-t all over a AirX on any given day, im not out to put down your little mill, just they have been rubbish compared to a standard mill.

From those who have put a data logger on a AirX show they are about a usefull as a wind sock, although a small few claim they work well, amd perhaps 1 in 100 mills actually work.

Pete.

---

Sometimes it just works

thanks for all of the replies that whats forum are for
passing on knowledge to help people out.

cheer`s ian

Hi all,

Sorry to bump up an old thread but I have a few questions about some wind generators I've found lately.

These were all dumped in the bush where I live and all ex-telecom. I spent a few days hauling them back home (which was a mission).

There is:
-1 broken one
-1 complete but full of water (likely) with generator
-1 spare generator that has been stored in a shed.

If it's possible I'd actually like to salvage parts and make one working one. Obviously I'm missing a fair few parts.

Is there anyway to identify what I have here? And how the heck do you disassemble these things?
I have found a photo from 1968 of one of these things installed here but that hasn't really helped me narrow down the voltage. It was a big telecom operation so they could be 110v...

I've found this website: http://www.pearen.ca/dunlite/Dunlite.htm

It's very helpful.

Edit may 2nd

-added the photo from 1968

Today I started pulling the complete unit apart. I got the hub off and that was about it. I've got the main long shafts that hold the generator to the turbine off but for the life of me can't figure out how to separate the two. Any advice?

Also got a few numbers from the hubs, aside from them I haven't seen anything legible.

I'd love a manual that shows disassembly of these units but cant find anything.




























Edited 2020-05-02 16:25 by Old_Dunlite

I have taken apart plenty of sized up thing's, mostly successful.

Usually I would have a puller that would do the job, but no always, if that isn't an option, run the nut down level with the end of the shaft, stops the thread from being damaged, knock in 2 or 3 wedges here (see arrow)


not too tight or there will be damage. then place a piece of brass, soft metal or lump of wood on top of the nut and shaft and give it a sensible hit with a suitable size hammer, see if that helps.
There are a few other methods of persuasion but that's a start.
A Manual for the parts would help...but wheres the fun in that.
hopefully get to see the gears.etc.

My apologies if I've misunderstood which part is stuck, most things have an particular order take apart.
good to see the pictures.

---

Cheers Aaron
Off The Grid

Gee, brings back memories ???.

I installed a survey site for Telecom ,Years ago , and it might have been this one ???  

I did a few ,Ocean View, near glass house mountains .  and  a few more here in Old and New Guinea.

Have you any idea where this site would be ?.

All these sites have power now or Solar. I did about 30 sites of solar in PNG ,bet they are all trashed in the jungle now -the locals loved the copper wire ,used to pinch it to make necklace beads and all sorts of market stuff to sell back to us tourists.

That front hub--- get the biggest hammer and whack it sharply on it's edge ,seen guys remove frozen stuff like that before-works every time ,especially if you don't own it !!!,lol. ( or local mechanic might have a big press ).

Bruce

---

Bushboy

  brucedownunder2 said  

Gee, brings back memories ???.

I installed a survey site for Telecom ,Years ago , and it might have been this one ???  

I did a few ,Ocean View, near glass house mountains .  and  a few more here in Old and New Guinea.

Have you any idea where this site would be ?.

All these sites have power now or Solar. I did about 30 sites of solar in PNG ,bet they are all trashed in the jungle now -the locals loved the copper wire ,used to pinch it to make necklace beads and all sorts of market stuff to sell back to us tourists.

That front hub--- get the biggest hammer and whack it sharply on it's edge ,seen guys remove frozen stuff like that before-works every time ,especially if you don't own it !!!,lol. ( or local mechanic might have a big press ).

Bruce

Thankyou both for the posts!

Bruce it's in Tasmania, ring any bells? Site is no longer an active telecom site but it was in the 70s.

The only thing I don't want to do is break anything! A little scared to wack it with the big hammer yet haha! Do you know if it has to be disassembled from the top down? I'm unsure how the alternator casing separates from the top sections.

Good day
You may have this information.  
This site has a parts list and diagram ( poor quality) for a dunlite generator.
http://www.linux-host.org/energie/swind.htm
cheers john

---

johnmc

Try some heat first, and maybe some WD40 or penetrene. Give it a day or two to soak right into the joint.

With a few pieces of angle iron and some long bolts you may be able to rig up a kind of puller, and use the giant nut on the end to pull the whole thing forward off the shaft as the nut is unscrewed.

I think leverage against the gear case is very likely to result in some tears.

---

Cheers,  Tony.

Hi all,

Managed to get the hub off and the brass thing under that. Also the end cap. Alot of water ingress into that section.

Still no luck separating the gearbox top housing from the lower aluminium housing.

Thanks for the link to that document, however my turbine is the Type BP 2kw and slightly different to that diagram. However the pearen.ca website has the correct manual.

Well I finally managed to get a good amount apart. It took alot of penetrating oil, hammers, heat and leverage... And spare time! Luckily the gearbox didn't suffer from water ingress, however the alternator casing did. It's pretty crapped out.

I still don't know the voltage of this unit. Sitting in the bush for that long any stamps it previously had are long gone.

I also managed to find a smashed cradle mount (also hidden in the bush) and two old towers. From them I removed a brake handle and the broken cradle. Unfortunately no good cradles here.

In another scrap pile I found the tail vane pictured (dunlite). Also found 1 X Quirks tail vane, but it is very large.

New photos:

Hello Ol Dunlight ,


 Gee, looking inside that mess,I'd be sure you could get a really worthwhile genie out of it.  A bit of bush and muddies, but thats, cosmetic ,clean it up and you have a really well built genie,by the looks of it.

That angle cut gear is what made me sit up and take a second look -you be flat out getting engineering like that today.
 
If you matched it with PhillM 's blades and a bit of his engineering mods, you'll be on a winner.  Reckon  she might have been 32 volt ,but I built and rigged those scaffold towers in telecom, They were temporary,I did lots of microwave surveys for radiotelephone,and early television translators in Oz .I go back 50 years.

So, 48 or 32 volts a possibility , and cleaned up inside, that winding and they look like old secondary windings or magnets on the end plates-let us know ,when you clean it up -Oh,, another thing ,, consider converting it to Neo magnets , There would be no such magnets in those days...

I like it ,,there's a couple new ones in the PNG jungle if you can get "those "Janes" to go with you ,only grass skirts required,

Bruce

  brucedownunder2 said  

Hello Ol Dunlight ,


 Gee, looking inside that mess,I'd be sure you could get a really worthwhile genie out of it.  A bit of bush and muddies, but thats, cosmetic ,clean it up and you have a really well built genie,by the looks of it.

That angle cut gear is what made me sit up and take a second look -you be flat out getting engineering like that today.
 
If you matched it with PhillM 's blades and a bit of his engineering mods, you'll be on a winner.  Reckon  she might have been 32 volt ,but I built and rigged those scaffold towers in telecom, They were temporary,I did lots of microwave surveys for radiotelephone,and early television translators in Oz .I go back 50 years.

So, 48 or 32 volts a possibility , and cleaned up inside, that winding and they look like old secondary windings or magnets on the end plates-let us know ,when you clean it up -Oh,, another thing ,, consider converting it to Neo magnets , There would be no such magnets in those days...

I like it ,,there's a couple new ones in the PNG jungle if you can get "those "Janes" to go with you ,only grass skirts required,

Bruce

Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the message!

Good to hear that you think it's salvageable. I'm certainly out of my depth in some ways with this project, but that's why it's long term!  

I'll have to check out PhillM's stuff!

The reason I think it's 48V is I found some old schematics here that show 3X 48V wired up with 2 X Dunlite generators as backup. That was for telecom. However, it may have being a spare or another one they trialed prior to 48V, who knows. Not really sure if there's any way to tell if there isn't any markings on it at all?

Did you do any installs in Tasmania by any chance (that's where I am)?

Really the only part i'm missing is the cradle (the one I found is pretty buggered), propellors and tower. Theres a guy selling a smaller model on gumtree currently for about $3000. If I was in the area I'd probably buy it, there really is nothing comparable to these units.

We currently use a 48V superwind 350, which is great as it's lightweight and easy to install, but it's only 350W. It's a shame that nothing is really made like these old units anymore. I've read reports of these things lasting 7 years in Antarctica and 30 years in the field with little maintenance!

I'd be happy to retrieve the ones in the jungle, if they didn't weigh 450-500 pounds!

Can I ask what you recommend using to clean up the magnets and wiring? Pretty limited here with what we have and I don't want to damage them further!

I did some work in Hobart installing the ABC transmitters and a link to that mountain .Always remember that, as we were coming back for Xmas break and their was snow and ice on the ABC tower, late Nov. !!!!

Clean up ,gee, I,d get stuck into it with kero or diesel with a stiff brush .Could use a Gerni ,but not around the wiring.  If you can get the case parts naked, (remove bearings,Etc) have someone sandblast it with care, mainly the exterior .  The cradle,,, why not build a new one out of angle and plate , fit it ,make mods , then have it hot dipped gal'ed.

 Phill would steer you right if you decide to use his blades and he's made the hub for them.

Neo's, do a bit of drawing to see what will fit and where , then search for the size that would suit. They are usually protected, so inside the case you'd expect to get a couple years without maintenance..They'll be an expensive item .

 Bruce

Hi, new member here with a DIY off grid solar system in development and construction, reading this post about Dunlite turbines with much interest.

I'm about to acquire a refurbishable model M Dunlite Generator at near scrap value, as per attached images, and am piecing together what needs to be done to restore to runnning order. There is also a spare Model M generator, two 750W generators, and various 3 and 4 hub and blade assemblies in varying states of repair, generally poor. On top of this, I will looking at acquiring an L model 48V unit, with tower, in good condition, soon, but I'll start with the pictured unit. Two main issues:

1. The voltage regulator is missing. I refer to a previous quote on this thread by 'b251367'

"The models L and M have a single field winding which is shunt connected via a voltage regulator. .... I have just developed and built a voltage regulator, very simple and low tech. It is just solid state version of the old mechanical regulator and uses a large diode to prevent reverse current."

2. While resistances will be checked on receipt, the owner tells me it was a 32V unit whereas I am designing a 48V system.

Can I get some guidance on how to proceed to reinstate the voltage regulator and convert to 48V?





Edited 2026-03-15 17:20 by GleamBright

Your last pic appears to show a commutator, though the brushes may be missing. If so increasing the voltage would require rewinding the armature. Likely to be very expensive, assuming you can find an armature winder.

The maximum possible output voltage is determined by the speed so a 32V unit will produce 48V when the speed is high enough and the voltage regulator set to the higher voltage, but that means most of the time it will be producing less than the battery voltage.
A DC to DC boost converter may be a better option.

The voltage regulator just limits the voltage to what is safe for the batteries.
Sometimes they also include current limiting to protect the generator from overload.
I have a circuit for a 24V electronic regulator somewhere that could be adapted, assuming I can find it.