Scott, and Listers,
As you all know (and are no doubt tired of hearing about it), I've just been
there, done that. I put on a Toyota internal-regulator alternator, from a 80-82
Corolla (they only produced a few million of those), and so far it's going
great. This piece is rated at 55 Amps, I believe, and actually requires three
wires for a complete hookup: The big wire to the battery, a smaller wire to the
ignition, and a small wire to the ignition light. So far as I know that is the
same set of connections required for a GM one-wire alternator. The Toyota setup
uses standard 0.25" spade connectors for the ignition and light connections, and
a 0.25" round lug connector for the battery connection.
I had to make a bracket to mount the thing, of course. The alternator mounts
using a 10mm by about 5 inches long bolt that goes through two ears on the
alternator, and I had a friend machine up a piece of 1" cold rolled steel bar
stock to fit between the ears. The rearmost ear has a pressed-in distance piece
that allows for slight variation in length so this is easy. I used a piece of
3/8" steel plate for the cylinder head side of the bracket. Cut it to a kidney
shape, drilled two 3/8" and a 7/16" hole and bolted it to the head.
At this point I threw everything in the car and eyeballed the alignment of
things. By sheer luck the rearmost edge of the alternator ear bracket (the 1"
bar stock piece) lined up with the front surface of the head plate. I then
measured the distances from the two 3/8" holes to the bar stock piece, and this
gave me enough information to build the stuff inbetween.
I used three ribs of 1/8" steel plate for the stuff inbetween. I cut out the
middle rib and welded this to the 1" bar stock, then welded that to the head
plate. I spent a few minutes after that with a large square to ensure that
things were straight, then tacked the other two ribs into place. Recheck the
squareness again and adjust as necessary. At this point I took stuff home again
and bolted the bracket to the head and the alternator to make sure that the
alignment and measurements were okay. The ribs were then boxed in front and rear
with more 1/8" plate to ensure a rigid structure. After that, I cleaned things
up with a wire wheel in the bench grinder, and painted it.
For the wiring, I decided to use the existing harness as much as possible; since
I had to remove the regulator anyway, I used the large (brown/yellow?) wire that
ran from the generator to the regulator, and connected it to the large brown
wires at the regulator side, and to the battery terminal lug on the alternator.
The small brown/yellow wire on the regulator connects to the dash charge light;
I connected this to the (green/red?) wire that ran to the generator, then on the
generator end I connected it to the "light" spade terminal. I had to run a new
wire from the ignition terminals at the fuse block (white wires) to the "IG"
terminal on the alternator.
The belt I used was a few inches shorter than stock. Use your favorite brand.
Start it up - Chaaaarge!
I will be posting pictures, sketches, and more text on my 'alternator' webpage,
hopefully this weekend. http://members.home.net/tsmit/alternator.html
Theo Smit
tsmit@novatel.ca
B382002705
> -----Original Message-----
> From: netscott@earthlink.net [SMTP:netscott@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Friday, June 11, 1999 5:47 AM
> To: tiger mail
> Subject: gen alt conversion
>
> i know this has been talked about, but my time has come.
> i just need the short story on:
> bracket
> one wire alternator
> belt
> hook-up
> thanks
> scott
> B9472628
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