Denso alternator upgrade - not the 60amp mini

[70bigblockdodge]

I agree Stan no reason that will not work, great to know when I get a formal.
Big John rock auto has them with pulleys reman or new, and you don't get the evil eye at your local parts store for not having a core.

 

[Big_John]

I agree Stan no reason that will not work, great to know when I get a formal.
Big John rock auto has them with pulleys reman or new, and you don't get the evil eye at your local parts store for not having a core.

I gotta give my buddy at NAPA a call on Monday before I buy anywhere else. He can usually get me a pretty good deal. He's a Mopar guy (owns a Dart Lite!) too.

 

[Big_John]

My NAPA buddy was on vacation, so I started looking around and found a used 90 amp alternator on ebay for $40 shipped. The cheap part of me kicked in and decided to buy it. I figure worst case, I use it for a core and I'll lose $5. Best case is it will work just fine.

 

[fury fan]

From what I read here: Vintage Chrysler electrical repairs and updates , It looks to me like the stud needs to be shortened, the insulator for the splash shield tossed and the shield itself cut away around the stud.

I think I'm going to try this myself. I just have to figure out where to buy one to get the best bang for the buck.

When you get that alt in your hands, don't just blindly follow those instructions. I agree cutting the stud down would help, however I see no reason to cut the plastic insulator around the stud, for it adds worthwhile protection. Also, the insulator has a nub on it for orientation, and you can simply drill a new hole in the splash cover on the back of the alt to orient the power cable whichever direction you want (which is my plan).

 

[70bigblockdodge]

My NAPA buddy was on vacation, so I started looking around and found a used 90 amp alternator on ebay for $40 shipped. The cheap part of me kicked in and decided to buy it. I figure worst case, I use it for a core and I'll lose $5. Best case is it will work just fine.

They are pretty damn reliable which is part of the attraction of them.

 

[mr. fix it]

Then that would be defeating the intent of my pouring $15,000.00 into a $2,500 car.

You are a died in the wool C body lover if you do that

 

[commando1]

You are a died in the wool C body lover if you do that

 

[Big_John]

Just got the used one... That didn't work out well for me at all.... Noisy bearings and the field connection stud is broken off. I can rebuild it, but so much for just bolting it on.

 

[65Fury440]

Well....it was worth a try. Bummer.

 

[commando1]

All in the name of science.

 

[Big_John]

I got to fooling around with the Denso alternator today. The front bearing was shot, but other than that, everything was OK. I replaced the brushes just cause and it's back together. I was going to complain about the bad bearing, but then I got an email from the seller that said their building had a major fire this week. They got enough problems.....

Anyway.... This isn't going to be as "plug and play" as I had hoped. The lower bracket for the stock alternator is a pretty rigid piece, with a brace going over to the motor mount. There's no fudging it around to allow for the Denso alternator lock bolt. The Denso also needs to be mounted just a bit higher than the slot allows too.



The good news is the top mount will just need a correct length spacer for the bolt to the head. It will need some longer belts too.

So... I shelved the project until after Carlisle. I had hoped to have it done today, but I have to figure out the lower bracket. I wanted to have the stock alternator as a spare, but this might rule out doing a quick swap in a motel parking lot. I have another cheap Denso alternator coming though... These are pretty easy to work on, so I might just do one of those as a spare.

 

[Big_John]

This is what the lower bracket looks like.

Cheap Evilbay small block bracket. The slotted part might be perfect.

 

[fury fan]

I'm glad to see (sorry!) that somebody else found this wasn't a simple drop-in for them. Some folks have apparently done it, but I was struggling to get there with the brackets I have. Although mine has a serp pulley on it, so I'm limited in how much I can mock up as far as a spacer.

I do believe you'll need to use the older-style lower bracket, although I believe it doesn't have quite enough curvature to it, at least not enough to put the alt where I want it, it interferes with some of the casting of the alt. Although proper location vs the pulley might solve this?

I think it would be much simpler if doing a mid-60s AC setup like this, but I don't have AC just yet.

 

[Big_John]

Thinking about it, I kind of like the lower bracket being more rigid. The belts are kind of long once they go over the A/C compressor and I think the rigidity is good to keep them in place.

So..... I have a couple ideas. One is to make an extension to the alternator.

Top view would look something like this:

 

[fury fan]

Agreed on the bracket you have being more rigid, although adding onto the alternator via a bolted joint might reduce that somewhat. Probably would work OK though if you do it right.

The pic I posted above in #73 - that upper bracket is the tensioner, and it is quite a bit thicker than the later tensioner brackets, probably due to longer distance as you mentioned.

 

[twostick]

I have the Rav4 Denso on my 66. I don't recall if it is 60 or 90 amp but I think it's 90.

I had the original alt mounted with Summit billet brackets (Oooo Biiillet). I bought the AR Engineering bracket kit from Mancini to install it thinking the billet bracket wouldn't work. Wrong, sort of.

I used all the spacers from the kit plus the tension bracket and it bolted/lined right up with the existing billet bracket. The only thing that gives me any concern is the tension bracket is now anchored to the engine with just the one bolt and spacer without the triangle bracket. The bolt is spaced out from the engine about an inch so there might be a slim chance that it could snap off the bolt if that Counter Electro-Motive Force that was discussed earlier was great enough should it be transmitted down the bracket.

Pretty sure I'm overthinking it.

I ran IIRC an 8g wire from the alt direct to the battery so the bulkhead will never see any serious current from the alternator and I bought the correct plug for the alt and wired it up per the instructions.

Kevin

 

[commando1]

I'm standing back watching this and while I applaud the mission to convert to a compact Denso, thankfully through your efforts I'm pretty well convinced now that an OEM style high amp aftermarket alternator is the way to go for me.