Radio/ipod hookup

[DNK]

Maybe in Ca. it might work.
But here in the NW. The lights , wipers are always on

 

[justin_mercier]

Amps draw a lot of power, this is the reason many people with good amps in their car have a 2nd battery, or a large capacitor in-line with the amp, both for preventing wire burnup with big bass drops that suck power, and to mitigate the 'drain' when the amp is in use. You may be fine for a week or two, but then all of a sudden the car wont start, because you'll have sucked the battery dry.

This actually happened to my TR6. I didn't know my alternator was going bad, the voltage looked fine, but my 8inch powered sub and loud stereo was draining enough that eventually i got stranded at work, and had to get jumped to get home.

 

[PeterK]

Stock generator is 28amps.

Stock generator on what car? A stock TR3 generator is only 19 amps (though many have upgraded to the later 21 amp version).

You know what's funny is that my brain crossed my tractor with my TR. My brothers Kubota came with a 28amp dynamo and we just up graded it to an alternator. :lol:

But as far as the kit, I think that Matt uses a Delco (is it 12si?) 55 amp alternator, same as I have in my TR3A. A far as install and adjustment, it IS large, adjustment is OK but I have to remove the rt side horn to remove the alternator. No biggie, but it's tight.

 

[TR3driver]

On my TR4A, with the stock generator in good condition, running with lights and demister would slowly drain the battery. It perhaps wasn't that those two accessories used more current than the generator provided, but I think there wasn't enough excess to replace the energy used by the starter.

On a previous TR3A, I verified that with the lights, wiper, and heater all running; plus the generator putting out its rated 19 amps; the battery would slowly discharge even driving down the highway. Total load was about 23 amps. Stop for a traffic light and of course it discharged heavily. (Brake lights drew another 4.2 amps plus of course the generator output drops to basically nothing at idle.)

Now my heater motor was "souped up" a bit, so it might have drawn a few amps more than stock but that was with standard tungsten sealed beam headlights and 1157 tail/marker lights. And even without the heater motor, the generator didn't have enough extra capacity to recharge the battery (from starting or even sitting at a traffic light) in any reasonable length of time.

My current TR3 has no wiper motor or heater; just an electric fan that draws about 8 amps. If I drive home in stop-n-go traffic after dark, I can tell that the battery is down when I start it the next morning. Fortunately in the morning I don't need either the headlights or the fan, so it gets recharged by the time I get to work. But if work were only 2-3 miles away (as it was when I owned the 3A with the souped-up heater), the battery would get lower and lower until the car wouldn't start.

 

[BillyB62]

I purchased the kit from TR Rescue and installed it this weekend. It was tight, but not unworkable. I removed my carbs prior, so I had enough space to work (well, that's relative). I had been looking to do this since I bought the car and researched the heck out of it. There are a couple of websites that have directions listed - and TR Rescue sent along a pretty detailed set with the kit (with pictures - which I like). The kit comes with a new alternator, belt, 7" bolt, heat shrink connectors, tie wraps and the instructions.

I had to grind the casing a little to make sure the pulleys lined up - but overall I very happy with their product. I told my wife I probably could've gathered all the pieces up myself and save a few bucks, but having the piece of mind that I received all the correct pieces and having Matt from TR Rescue offering phone help if I had issues was comforting and worth it in my opinion.

 

[DanB]

There are some really small alternators that put out good current. I have a mitsubishi on mine, from a GEO Metro I think. I originally did a GM one wire conversion, but there was hardly any adjustment and I had to use a different size belt which was hard to find, so we redid it with the smaller mitsu and modified the mounts to fit the original geometry. A bushing had to be made for the pulley. The control box was eliminated with the GM conversion.

Or buy the kit.

Dan B
S. Charleston, WV
66 TR4A IRS EFI
80 TR7 DHC

 

[rusty55]

So it's been a few weeks since I installed this. I thought I'd responded on this thread but I guess not.
What I decided to do was to leave the generator in place and connect a battery tender. The tender sits outside the vehicle but plugs into the car under the passenger dash. We drive the car mostly on weekends for maybe 3 to 4 hours at a time so I just keep it plugged in when its home in the garage.
I also wired a toggle to switch off the amp in case for some reason we need the battery to charge under the power of the generator.
It seems to be working fine and according to the tender, the battery is always fully charged before we take it out.
I have however been more cautious about running the heat, headlights, and so on when not necessary.
Thanks for the input.