Alternator Changes

[Daniel]

I read of people changing the alt. to another type. I once thought of doing that and learned these item I find of interest. The alt. as we know doesnt really produce at idle.The reason is the electric field it generates acts like a clutch on a go cart. The more RPM, the more the resistance. That said if you change the pulley and create resistance at lower rpm you can cause belt slippage, premature wear, power loss of the engine due to the increased resistance. Just installing anything on your car can cause more headaches than relief. Its a fine balance. Not to mention supplying 100amps to a alt wire that was only rated for 60 amps. Its just a battery charger. In most cases your efforts would be better spent cleaning electrical connections.

[sblake01]

I read of people changing the alt. to another type. I once thought of doing that and learned these item I find of interest. The alt. as we know doesnt really produce at idle.The reason is the electric field it generates acts like a clutch on a go cart. The more RPM, the more the resistance. That said if you change the pulley and create resistance at lower rpm you can cause belt slippage, premature wear, power loss of the engine due to the increased resistance. Just installing anything on your car can cause more headaches than relief. Its a fine balance. Not to mention supplying 100amps to a alt wire that was only rated for 60 amps. Its just a battery charger. In most cases your efforts would be better spent cleaning electrical connections.

Well put! I have always used the OE alternator on every Datsun i've ever owned without any of the problems I read about here. The more a car is modified from stock especially in the area of electrical or fuel delivery the more advice you'll have to seek since there are no established benchmarks for troubleshooting the problems you may encounter.