My Alternator Upgrade Experience

[sultanoswing]

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

The sweet roaring engine sound of satisfaction.

I just replaced my dead Lucas 16ACR with an 85 Amp Bosch unit (BXF1255A= Aust./NZ part numer).

First, a little rant:
Annoyingly, the Saturn unit widely referred to (e.g. Here: Onefastmg) was not available 'off the shelf' in NZ, as the Saturn appears to be a (stupid, annoying) US-only car. The (stupid, insane, frustrating) thing is that the Bosch numbers aren't international - and myself and the local Bosch importer, with all catalogs open - were unable to easily find which alternator the Saturn equivalent was. So, no straight bolt-on for me. OK rant over.

The BXF1255A is an 85 Amp unit with a 2-blade socket. I was lucky enough to get it brand new for $147 including the pulley and fan (that's NZD, which convert at 72 US cents), as I know the importer personally.

Wiring
Wired the two fat brown wires onto the alternator Battery (B+) post.
Wired the brown/yellow (ignition light wire) onto the alernator's ignition (I) terminal, via a standard Bosch 2-pin adapter plug.
Wired the sense (S) alternator terminal to the B+ post also using the Bosch adaptor plug.

Mounting
Took the pulley off and removed the spacer to get exact belt alignment with the unit mounted on the front face of the original mounts.
Used original bolt/nut on front mount, used a M8 gauge 50mm bolt with a 1cm copper spacer at the back mount.
The lower mount required an extension to be bolted on to the original bracket, which just cleared the alternator's fans (this unit is fatter than the Lucas).
The unit had to be rotated/lifted to clear the engine mount point, requiring a 965mm fan belt.

Fired her up - and a glorious 14.3 volts is present, nudging to 14.1 with everything running. Turn lamps are metronomic, stereo is loud, wipers are swishing and heater is blowing /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Now for those halogen headlamps and uprated coil....

 

[John Moore]

Be careful! That's a lot of Amps for a car that was designed to carry 35! Make sure you all your grounds and connections are pristine as any corrision can build up heat. Or next thing you will be doing is buing a new harness for that new alternator.

I did a conversion, but I opted for the Bosch Ford Fiesta Version. It puts out 55 amps, which seems to be more than adequate.

 

[sultanoswing]

Heh - why go for 55 when 85 are available? MORE POWER!!

Seriously though - that's a good point - I'll keep a very close eye out for the first sign of any blown fuses or Lucas smoke.

 

[Bret]

Congrats! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif Like John I did the Bosch Fiesta alternator upgrade too - and love it!

Nothing like sitting at a stop light idling with the all the accessories on and your radio blasting with – “no dimming head lights & no fear”.

But to address Johns concerns - if you've done your homework & go over your connections to give them a good once over and cleaning where needed - you should be fine. Remember that just because the connections look good doesn’t mean they are – take the time to measure them with an ohm meter to be safe. Especially around the fuse block’s quick disconnects. Sometimes the oxidation on the alloy connections can look ok to the untrained eye. If you ain’t sure – be safe and hit it with some contact cleaner available at most electronics stores.

But if you ever want to add more electronics goodies like a beefed up stereo or something – way beyond what the circuitry was designed for. Then you should run separate “fused” lines for those components. One of the best pickups – is to run a line directly to the starter solenoid or the positive battery.

Mater a fact I actually ran a second 10ga brown wire from the new Alternator to the solenoid to be safe. This will give you the extra current carrying capability to equal the heavy gauge wire going from there to the Battery.

Cheers!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

 

[sultanoswing]

[ QUOTE ]
Especially around the fuse block’s quick disconnects. Sometimes the oxidation on the alloy connections can look ok to the untrained eye.

[/ QUOTE ]

Already upgraded the fuse box to a 4-fuse blade block. Humming!

[ QUOTE ]
But if you ever want to add more electronics goodies like a beefed up stereo or something

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep. She's already running off a sperate circuit using a 30A relay, with two seperate battery feeds on heavy guage (30A) wire with 15A in-line blades. If anything catches fire, it won't be the tunes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'll consider uprating to a large guage brown between B+ and the starter solenoid as you suggest, and breaking out the ohm-meter this weekend. And of course any halogens would go on seperately relayed, fused circuits.

Thanks for your input, guys!

 

[John Moore]

The other connections to really check are the ones for the front lights. They are under the slam panel and exposed to the elements.

 

[Bawanadic]

Just a quick 2 cents. Amps is a rating of how much load the alternator can take. If your car has a 35 amp load maximum you will only draw 35 amps. you will not be taxing the higher amperage alternator as much as the Lucas. By all means if your add to the circuit add additional protection or you could end up like one of my early projects with the dash on fire. (it was a 47 Willys and I put it out with Rolling Rock.)
By the way I'm presently running a modified Delco Remy at about 95 amps but I'm upgrading the Lucas alternators, (one's a Bosh the others are original), to upgrade the amps but to add better surge protection and a bridge rectifier that doesn't look like a high school wiring project.

 

[sultanoswing]

Took the 'G' for a spin down country today. Went like a charm...it was raining cats and dogs and misting up - but wipers were swooshing at speed and the heater blower was like a mini-hurricane.

Very satisfying home mech. job /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif