Folks-
taylor!randy, deciding to twist the knife in addition to inserting it, used
the subject of "How to be a PO (was alternator swapping)" to say ...
>>> All self regulating alternators (what we're dealing with here) take a
minimum of three electrical paths to operate. Ground, usually through the
frame. Field, D+, a small wire normally driven by the idiot light on the
dash. And, B+, hot, Bat (etc.), connected directly to the battery hot side.
*Most* Bosch alternators use three wires with a frame ground. One field, and
two hot's. Most Lucas ACR's are the same way. <<<
Could be, I dunno. I will say that all the Bosch alternators in cars I've
owned have been of the two-wire variety. Ground and hot. Naturally, the
Bosch-equipped cars I've owned do not make up a statistically valid sample
of the universe of automobiles.
However, my point, however poorly made in my original posting, was that
using one of the two-wire Bosch alternators is a _simple_, relatively
inexpensive way to get the job done, in applications where originality is
not a goal.
>>> Your BMW should just have a ground braid from the alternator frame to
the engine block....<<<
It's a #10 wire, actually, in the usual "brown=ground" color.
>>> ... This is carry current past the brain-damaged, fan belt eating rubber
mounts BMW used on the alternator.<<<
I dunno about the "brain-damaged" part, but the alternator belt on my BMW
has made 90,000 miles plus whatever the previous owner put on it. Pretty
good life for a "fan-belt-eating" setup, IMHO.
>>> ... they are not "all-rubber-mounted". Some other German manufacturers
used ... <<<
I meant that the ones I was suggesting were mounted in rubber at all three
mounting points, not that all Bosch alternators are rubber mounted.
>>> The starter won't care. <<<
Quite correct, and I should have remembered this from the two ground-
swapping conversions in which I have taken part.
>>> The wiper motor does care. It will work backwards, but will
eat itself eventually. Old Lucas wiper motors have thrust bearings for
only one direction. Reversing it causes the worm gear to push the armature
towards the brushes, rather than the t[h]rust stop. <<<
As Johnny Carson would say, "I did not know that." I've never had to work
on the innards of a Lucas wiper motor, because I've never had one fail. I've
had two wiper motor failures on Volvos, though; in both cases the glued-in
magnets fell out. The motors were made by Electrolux, and even their
billboards say "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux...."
As for Lucas, generally, I've never had much trouble with their stuff,
except for the silly prices on the more modern bits. Even the ratty old
Sprites and TRs and whatnot I drove in my younger days (and will again)
were no worse, electrically, than anything else. I had my share of smoking
wires and intermittant failures, but no worse than the more-modern cars
I've had in more recent times. The thing I liked best about Lucas stuff
was that you could repair it. You could disassemble the switches and clean
up the contacts, you could rebuild a generator or a starter, and the rest
of the stuff mostly made sense. Sorta like the cars it was put in: simple
and sturdy, but not designed for construction or maintenance by high-
priced labor.
However, progress moves on apace, and I'd certainly give serious
consideration to replacing a dead generator/regulator system with something
more modern on a car I was driving regularly.
-Shel
|