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Fed Up With Lucas Alternators!

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jhorton3

jhorton3

Jedi Warrior
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I took Midgie out for a drive last night. The first five minutes were enjoyable until the alternator bearing started squealing again. This is the third Lucas alternator I've had go out, and I'm really tired of it! I've thought about it in the past and now I want to push forward with a Delco alternator conversion. Does someone make a kit with the alternator, bracket, and wiring?
 
Ask Gerard about a Saturn alternator kit. www.gerardsgarage.com

You can email him : pixelsmith@ the above domain.
 
FWIW Lucas, Delco, Saturn, etc. ALL use the same bearing....... 202, 201, or 203 depending on model...

Peter C
 
Bearings ususally don't squeal, they growl or whine. Squealing is usual a belt. Got the right belt and/or pulley(s)?
 
The belt is tight. I can spray lubricant on the spindle where the bearing is, and the noise disappears for a while.
 
Have they all failed in the same way? Just wondering if perhaps one of the mounts is bent, placing an uneven loading the pulley perhaps? Shot in the dark, but..maybe worth trying to get a straight edge in there..see if anything is obviously out of alignment(?)
 
Possible the belt is over tightened which forces the armature to twist and ruin bearings. There should be no more or less than 1/2" movement in belt when tightened.
 
I used the GM alternator. I have used them on so many other applications and they are cheep and easy to come by. It is not the easiest to install. It took me 3 tries before I got it to work well. I had to make a briquette to install it with out modifying the alternator. They are a little big and ugly and I had to move the temp sending unit back to the radiator.

DSCN8052.JPG
 
Mine have all had different failures. That's why I want to move to something else. I just don't think the quality is in the products anymore. Who know? I may wind up with the Delco and have just as many problems.
 
I'm running a Mitsubishi. Any single wire will work.
I bought a 12" universal curved bracketdownload.jpg
 

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That Mitsubishi looks kinda nice. What model? Do you have an pictures of the backside and wiring connections?
 
I'm not sure of the model #
The only wiring I did was the brown wire to the single post on the alt.
I went to a junkyard and looked for a Japanese car w/ a 1 wire alt, and three mounting points; two lined up and the third 180 deg across.download.jpg

You can get the warning light to work, but I misplaced the harness connector and have never felt the need to bother with it
 
I used the same Mitsubishi alternator for years. Mine was free and had a cog-drive pulley so I put a Lucas air-pump pulley on it.
I forget the wiring used but I got the dash light working. It wasn't hard.

As stated, the GM alternators are sort of large (and I've had two of them fail).

My MGB has a "Frankenstein-Alternator" built from three units. Works fine.

Here's a link to my "Frankenstein-Alternator".

https://www.britishcarforum.com/bcf...ire-to-3-wire-alternator&highlight=alternator
 
I have a Delco 10SI on the GT6, a Motorola copy of a Bosch on the Mini, and a 3-wire Lucas hooked up to the 5-wire harness in the Spitfire. I recently purchased one of the Bosch Fiesta alternators to keep as a spare after I had to use my previous spare on the Spitfire. I still like alternators that use the warning light. Of course, if you have a voltmeter the warning light isn't really necessary except that suddenly glowing light warns you that something is wrong way before you happen to glance at a voltmeter.
 
I went out last night, readjusted the alternator belt and took the car for a spin at dusk. On the last outing I had sprayed a lubricant around the spindle. Up to 4,500 RPM the alternator was quiet...for a while. Then it started it's screeching again. The other thing is the headlights and dash lights are pulsing bright and then dim. That happened one time before when a previous alternator started giving up the ghost. Guess it's time to get serious about a replacement plan.
 
jhorton3 said:
I went out last night, readjusted the alternator belt and took the car for a spin at dusk. On the last outing I had sprayed a lubricant around the spindle. Up to 4,500 RPM the alternator was quiet...for a while. Then it started it's screeching again. The other thing is the headlights and dash lights are pulsing bright and then dim. That happened one time before when a previous alternator started giving up the ghost. Guess it's time to get serious about a replacement plan.
Click to expand...

it could be that the regulator or diode(s) are failing, causing increased load, which makes the belt slip and squeal.
 
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