unfortunatly I'm not in Da
unfortunatly I'm not in Dallas for a while...doing that pesky bone marrow transplant in Little Rock AR, should be here about a month, then home for a month then back here so I wont be able to help.
Before I went about this alternator deal I found the place that rewires alternators all over the country, apparently they subcontract through mobile audio places and that have a need for higher amp applications.
They promissed me they could do it. But only if they could inspect mine first.
I went to a place in Alrington called
Dub Mobile Sound on North Cooper ave. They had this awesome display up with a before and after that was chrome and 150 AMPS! That got my attention. They guaranteed that they could rewire any alternator.. so back to the garage I went.
I took mine out, first came the "ballpark" estimate of $500 complete. I said ok, then I got a call that said the chrome was $100 more, again I said ok, ...2 days later (a week now) they call me and said that they took my alternator appart and did not have the capability or availability for parts because it was too old and no longer produced by bosch... duh! I knew that, that's why I was having it rewound instead of replaced..anyway. They said they couldn't get the VR or the brushes. I know yours (russ) is a newer one so it's very possible that they could do it, then again I think my whole entire job will be around $120 including the exhaust wrap for the heat issue.
So since your engine is out already I would probably go for an upgrade of the JR like(JR=me).
Some of the Pro's for me were;
Costs,
Kept original incase something happens,
Did I mention cost?
Double the amperage,
Greater reliability
It's brand new,
Life time warranty through O'reilleys,
But the most important thing is that third reference wire that is not built into the alternator.
That alone was a make or break deal for me. I'm tired of dim lights, slow windows, well...slow everything, even my solenoids to open the gas and hoods are giving me a hard time. It's time to do it right.
The funny thing is I thought doing it right would mean it would cost more but now looking at how cheap that Hi Tork starter and this alt biz is, I think I'm going to start reconsidering my options from now on.
Did I ever tell you how much Norwood quoted me to rebuild my engine? twice what it cost me to do it except I got another 100hp our of it. Nothing against Norwood, I love them just wish I could afford them.
The cons to not rewiring my Alt?; No chrome.
I had to leave for the hospital before it could be finished so don't know when I'll have it running but electrically speaking this WILL work. I have 3 concerns still;
The heat issue,
my own measurements, which are always subject to interpretation depending on the time of day and liquor consumed..
lack of adjustment at the belt.
I really need to talk to someone about a longer belt, I really would like to pull the alternator further away from the block, as is now, I have about half inch clearance between the block and the alternator and I feel that maybe 2 inches would be more practical for airflow. I was also thinking about making an insulated heat shroud that would go around the concern parts.
There is however, a very easy and practical sollution to the heat issue and I believe Ferrari figured it out in the early 90's - There's two types of alternators, the fully enclosed that uses the push/fan at the front by the pulley to push air into the alternator (what I have and similar to the one pictured above) and out the back which does little to cool the main component...the VR, by the time the already hot air passes through the hot windings it hits the VR with it's maximum heat absobtion. It's like pounding it with a hair dryer.
The later Ferrari one, Pictured below, like the 348 for example , I believe it's a Hitachi type. Notice it has openings all around it and no fan at the front. Apperantly what it does is suck air through the body of the ALT and expells it out the front and back equally. To me this is precisely what mine needs because as is now the only air it pulls in is the heated air rising from the exhaust pipe directly beneath it, it's actually the collector so I get a significant hot air mixture up there. I'm working with a guy at O'rilleys auto parts who let me go through every single box of alternators they had until I found the one I needed. I found an exact dup. but exactly aneimic at 65Amps so I opted for a slightly beefeer knowing that I would have to make some modefications. As long as the bolt patterns were there I could adjust and it works.
So now that I have a delco part number, and all the brackets and spacing have been worked out,
it's a matter of having him order me one in the other "Hitachi style".
He said he'd even take the one I bought back in exchange even though I told him I just needed it to make the bracket-- hell of a guy! Any hoot, if anyone's willing to wait until I get home I'll post the numbers and you guys can do the same. I think the three wire is deffinately the way to go but many have been wrong on here before and I don't pretend to be the know it all In this company I consider myself the rookie wrench turner.
I was reading russ's other threads and was humbled at the fact that I know nothing about carburation for example...start throughing numbers at me and watch me cry.
Anyhoot, Russ, I bought 50' of fiberglass exhaust wrap on ebay for $25 and I'm about 25' short for the headers and 50' short if I wanted to wrap the entire system. Oh yeah had to get a bag of 3-4" hose clamps at the Depot. I don't really like them but they'll do for now. Once I get my strength back I think I'm going to pull the engine and detail it with some different stuff. All this while trying to sell it too. got about 50K invested in it selling for 20K and can't stop! I just love this car, it has so much potential now. I remember 3 years ago you couldn't get spark plugs now I see people making parts at home. I'm happy, oh yeah, if you meet my wife make sure you tell her the car's for sale...truth is I don't think I'm ever going to sell it.
I'm already looking for a decent 348 for my next one...that's if I make it home of course
gotta go, the chemo starting to kick my ass.
Now, I know I'm not very smart but I try not to nitpick too much at some of the silly threads on here but com'on, I was using the christmas lights as a metaphor... I know that christmas lights are hooked up in parallel...now, but many moons ago they came in series, and what I was actually refering to was my own personal attempt to save wire by adding about 24 light sockets for a high school project using only one wire and that's really where my example came from. I also know that Ferrari as most auto manufacturers try to use parallel conections however there's more to just connections as you have to take into consideration resistance and many other things. I just didn't want to go overboard and loose the readers so I stayed with the easiest possible explanations. Like I said, I know there are smarter people than me on this post but don't judge me by my writing as I'm going by the easiest way to understand a concept that may be foreign to the non mechanically/electrically or electronical as I used to say it among us. Please forgive me but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, that's where things are learned but if I'm talking about alternators let's keep it to alternators. If you want to talk about chritmas lights let me know and I'll open up a thread specifically dedicated to christmas lights .. the rest enjoy!