Commonly available high current alternators (100A+, V-Belt)?

[stuee]

I'm restoring my old land rover 101 and from the factory they came with a piddly little 34A alternator. Since the bracketry wont let me fit anything other than standard I am going to fab up a custom mount for a new type of alternator. Ideally I'd like a 100A+ alternator as eventually I will be fitting a winch, amongst some other standard electrical accessories (2-way, spotties, etc)

I'm chasing something with at least 100A capacity (or very close too) with a V-Belt pulley (worst case I can pull off the serpentine belt pulley and swap over my v-belt pully). Ideally it would be freely available from wreckers or at a good price new. So far the best candidate I've found is a 120A Bosch BHX1250A out of a VS Commodore V8. The only issue I believe is that this may have been a police spec item and the standard units may only be 85A, so possibly not freely available, but a call to Repco will tell me in the morning.

Go forward a few years and all the Commodore V8 units seems to be 100A+ but would require the pulley to be swapped over.

Does anyone have any suggestions to alternators that fit my criteria??

[stilivn]

How hard is it to swap the pulleys, will any just slide on?

[stuee]

How hard is it to swap the pulleys, will any just slide on?

From what I've seen most are a simple swap over with the right number of washers/shims to space the pulley correctly. The only issue with this is you need a specialised tool to remove most pulleys, or you risk damaging the pulley. So it means I would have to employ the services of a workshop to change them over myself or invest in some new tools for a very infrequent job.

[1MadEngineer]

contact AEA auto electrics aust, and ask them. eg leese neville....

[Shadow]

100 series cruiser is a dual v belt pulley which should run off a single belt. not sure why toyota put 2 on it.

[stuee]

100 series cruiser is a dual v belt pulley which should run off a single belt. not sure why toyota put 2 on it.

Have just checked these out on ebay. Diesel 110A models are sub $300 new (non-genuine) which doesn't seem too bad. Will chase up the specs on them to see if there would be any issues running them on a higher revving petrol.

contact AEA auto electrics aust, and ask them. eg leese neville....

Never heard of these guys before, will give them a call.

Cheers

[bushy555]

Saw an ad only this morning in 'Diesel' truck magazine for a new generation brushless 12 volt Borsch style alternator which pump out 80 amps at an idle speed of 750 to 800 rpm.

[stuee]

Saw an ad only this morning in 'Diesel' truck magazine for a new generation brushless 12 volt Borsch style alternator which pump out 80 amps at an idle speed of 750 to 800 rpm.

Bet it has a nice price tag too.

[chimpboy]

How hard is it to swap the pulleys, will any just slide on?

From what I've seen most are a simple swap over with the right number of washers/shims to space the pulley correctly. The only issue with this is you need a specialised tool to remove most pulleys, or you risk damaging the pulley. So it means I would have to employ the services of a workshop to change them over myself or invest in some new tools for a very infrequent job.

Hmmm... I have swapped a few alternator pulleys and I've never used a special tool or (as far as I know) damaged a pulley. It's usually easy as long as you have a rattle gun for the nut.

Incidentally for at least some vintages the commo/falcon bosch vee-belt ones have a two-piece pulley, each side of the vee is a pressed steel "bowl", back to back. It is cheap and shonky and easy to get off.

I have heard there are 100/110 or some such rated versions out there but I only seem to find 70A (early) or 85A (later, up to VS/VT or so commodore era) ones. I assume later models than that have better alternators but they aren't lying around at my local pick-a-part so I haven't gotten my hands on one. To me the commodore and falcon ones seem to be the easiest to make up a bracket for by far. In fact on both a G60 and a rover V8 I was able to use one with just some drilling/grinding/shimming of the alternator or original bracket. Any alternator is only about $40 at the pick-a-part joint.

Just some thoughts, it's a while since I did this so I apologise if there are any errors above.

[date]

Magna alternators are rated at 130 amps, and have an internal regulator as well. They are a multi vee belt, and I am unsure if you can readily change them over. You should be able to pick one up from a wrecker for less than $50. They are a 2 bolt mounting, but you are fabricating a special bracket so it doesn't matter what they use. 130 amps seems large, especially when compared to the equivalent model Pajero which has only 85 amps.

[brooksy]

Magna alternator at 130 , why would they need such a high amp alternator. I am chasing a 120+ amp unit for current build.


brooksy

[stuee]

Hmmm... I have swapped a few alternator pulleys and I've never used a special tool or (as far as I know) damaged a pulley. It's usually easy as long as you have a rattle gun for the nut.

Incidentally for at least some vintages the commo/falcon bosch vee-belt ones have a two-piece pulley, each side of the vee is a pressed steel "bowl", back to back. It is cheap and shonky and easy to get off.

I have heard there are 100/110 or some such rated versions out there but I only seem to find 70A (early) or 85A (later, up to VS/VT or so commodore era) ones. I assume later models than that have better alternators but they aren't lying around at my local pick-a-part so I haven't gotten my hands on one. To me the commodore and falcon ones seem to be the easiest to make up a bracket for by far. In fact on both a G60 and a rover V8 I was able to use one with just some drilling/grinding/shimming of the alternator or original bracket. Any alternator is only about $40 at the pick-a-part joint.

Just some thoughts, it's a while since I did this so I apologise if there are any errors above.

What are you using to hold the shaft while you undo the nut? For both the alternators I have out atm (a dead one out my disco and the 34 amper), they have allen keey in the shaft and a bolt holding the pulley on. The only way to hold the shaft still to remove the bolt is using an allen key through the centre of a spanner/socket doovalacky. And from the video's I've seen you are correct about the rattle gun to turn the shaft or nut - whichever way your doing it.

There are tool kits like shown below are available, but I don't want to fork out for one just to do possibly a couple of alternator pulley's in the life of the vehicle.


The 120A v-belt versions I mention above are the police pack versions, but as you hint, I doubt they are commonly available at wreckers, but I think the alternator is the same as the standard vt v8 ones, just with a different pulley.

In the case of the normal substitutes for the Rover V8, I cant adapt them as easily as you would on the range rovers as the mounting is quite different on the 101, but its also quite easy to knock up a new bracket if need be.

[chimpboy]

You may not believe this but my method that has never failed to get a pulley off* is - hold the pulley in my hand and use the rattle gun on the nut. I've never needed the allen key because of the way rattle guns work.

*I have done this about 10-20 times, not 1000s of times or anything.

With the fitting... I can't comment on the Magna ones, I recall looking at them and deciding they were harder to mount but that was for a specific case. I can't recall why I thought they were hard.

With the commodore and falcon bosch ones, the ones that are readily available at 85A at my local pick a part are approx. VP-VT era. There are dozens and dozens of them. One housing has two small feet, the other has one large foot, so they are sort of the inverse of each other. They appear to be otherwise almot identical. I think it is the commo one that has the single central foot. Depending on what set up you have available one or the other is probably relatively easy to mount with only modifications to the existing mount. However 85A may not do you.

EDIT: actually, it might just have been that the magna ones were a bitch to get out at the wreckers. Here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BRAND-NEW-AL ... 1c20da408c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

108A is pretty good. They should be damn cheap 2nd hand given how common those cars are. I think it's ~$40 for any alternator at the joint near me. Just about worth it purely for experimentation.

[chimpboy]

... if you can find a wrecker with them try finding a volvo 850 alternator, 120A...? Just something I noticed browsing ebay just now.

[stuee]

You may not believe this but my method that has never failed to get a pulley off* is - hold the pulley in my hand and use the rattle gun on the nut. I've never needed the allen key because of the way rattle guns work.

Hmm. Think I may have to go buy a rattle gun now. At least I can use that for more than one thing.

Cheers.

[fazza81]

How about an aftermarket version of the BXU12121A which is a bosch 120amp 12v universal alt. BXA002 comes to mind as a part no. around the $250 I am pretty sure. Thats a new unit from any OEX distriubter Autobarn, Autopro .ETC.

You will need to purchase a pulley to suit but that way you can choose your diameter single bottom leg so easy to fab a bracket and easy to repair due to parts being easy to find if needed.

[howsie]

I have the 110 amp diesel alternator on my petrol 80 runs fine. Bolted up to.the.same brackets.

[Winger]

You probably have this sorted by now but the gen2 pajero alt are 100A and the gen3s dropped to about 80A but I can't remember if they are v pulley its been a while since I had one.