[TR] '3a Alternator conversion...

[terryrs at comcast.net]

Oh dear.  Memory, they say, is the second thing to go.  I forget what the first was....

As I seem to recall, I took the pully off the generator and it installed on the GM alternator, which is the unit that Dan Masters recommended and is the common one for the conversion (Don't ask, I forgot the number!).

I just checked my receipt box, and it was the stock pulley.    


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Templeton" <davidt at opentext.com>
To: terryrs at comcast.net
Cc: triumphs at autox.team.net
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 10:06:08 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: RE: [TR] '3a Alternator conversion...

Terry 

What did you do to still use the thick belt?  Also, more for the other listeners on this call :-)  Has anyone tried the denso alternators, they are a much smaller package.  My '95 K2500 had one but it had the serpentine belt pulley on it so I wonder about the conversion.  


David 

-----Original Message-----
From: terryrs at comcast.net [mailto:terryrs at comcast.net] 
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 6:22 PM
To: David Templeton
Cc: triumphs at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [TR] '3a Alternator conversion...

>As I get back into the '3a, I think an alternator conversion is needed,
>while the jenny was cool for looks, it simply didn't provide the power
>to needed for normal usage and didn't cycle the battery enough.  Is
>there webpage that is recent on installing a GM/Delco three wire
>alternator.  Also, is it advisable to go the thin belt conversion at the
>same time?  Where can I get replacement pulleys then for the water pump
>and crank?

I'm coming in on this late, but what the hay, why change the life cycle now, eh?

I stayed stock with a rebuilt generator...for a time.  ..Until I ran the car in the fall, driving to work in the morning in the dark, driving home at night in the dark, and finding that using the lights and running the motor left me with a dead battery after, I forget, two weeks?

Did the GM alternator conversion and never regretted it.  Well, except when I discovered one of the wires I'd used didn't stand up to vibration because the strands were too big, leaving me beside the road fabricating a new connector.  Now cured and forgotten.

I didn't bother with the thin belt conversion, but don't see why not.

Terry Smith, '59 TR3A
New Hampshire