Fenton https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/fenton-sbc-headers-now-reproduced.336524/ Old thread
Cool. I'd be tempted to change motor mounts for those. Wait, no, I'm happy with the stainless block huggers I have, but those would have been cool if I'd know about them at the beginning!
If you need nothing more than lights and a radio there is a marine waterpump/alternator combination similar to the race mate unit but even more stealthy as the whole thing is behind the pulley. Saw this on a 55 at a Friday night cruise, owner said it worked well, unfortunitly I can't remember the brand name. Google might help. Ralphie
Well it looks like we can't tell where you are are at or even near to Carnut62 but in most places the supply of small case alternators is pretty readily available. The 92 Dodge Dakota suspension donor I have out in the yard has a small 70 amp alternator with a finned case on it that will probably end up on my flathead. Easy to get off the donor rig too but I think it uses an external regulator. Along with size I'd think that having readily available replacements just in case one craps out on the road is something to consider when hunting a part like an alternator that has the possibility of failing on the road and might need replaced. Those Fork lift units are cute but can you walk into an autoparts store in Rock Springs Wyoming at 4 in the afternoon and find one to replace the one you have on the car that quit charging ten miles out of town. Getting to Bonneville a day and a half late because you had to wait for the brown truck to bring a red label box with a replacement in it would not be good. When it comes to the parts that I can unbolt and replace and go such as alternators/generators , starters I want parts that are readily available or a mount setup that lets me bolt a readily available part on.
Well if your running a Flathead the quality small alt. is the least of your concerns! Your at the mercy of FedEx & the Brown truck at any given moment!
Very good points Mr48. Most towns that have a bit of industry will have a electric motor shop I'd think. There they do the starters for industrial engines, alternators, large electric motors. This ain't the kind of place where they just do auto starters and such. They service manufacturing facilities with fleets of equipment. At the place near me, I've walked in and got a starter for a 331 hemi, on the shelf- not kidding! They rebuilt another for me, Walk in there with the goofiest stuff and if they don't have it they fix it. They Rebuilt a Mercedes starter while I waited, repaired a starter for a newholland tractor, while I waited, these were very expensive to replace and very special order with limited availability. They loaned me a box full of cores for mock ups, have gotten me chrome cases for any alternator I wanted. 1/2 the time they swap them over for me in 2 mins or less. The place is a very dear resource. I've yet to spend over $100.00 on anything there either. I'd like to think a place like this is somewhere in most towns. The problem is they aren't very easy to find.
Just a few thoughts. This "hide the alternator" problem has been around since generators and alternators were invented. Since it's a necessary part of any street driven car I suggest that you just accept it as a necessary part like a waterpump or a distributor and move on. You're not building a Riddler contender. Use a generator or early alternator, detail it nicely, and if you can't get it down low along side the balancer, and mount it up top where it fits best. Make brackets that resemble factory parts. I personally don't care for the look of a late model alternator on a period styled engine especially the imported ones. Making your own brackets is fun, an exercise in problem solving. You can mount the alternator solid and add an adjustable idler somewhere else if need be. Though it may lose the period correct vibe. Here's what I had to do to get the alternator mounted on my Austin street gasser. Kinda matches the "home made" look of the rest of the car.
As far as the distributor goes; on my roadster I had an early 3x2 manifold and the '57-up distributor. I had to grind off a little of the manifold where it interfered and also a little of a corner of the distributor cap to get the vacuum canister in the right location when the timing was set right. It didn't take much.
Check out Bills Hot rod Alt. bracket, Speedway Motors part #91667919. After you have seen it, you might be able to build it to run just an alternator cheaper.
'31 Vicky; So far so good, it's been up thru the gears a few times with no belt toss. The water pump is a Jabsco flange mount remote and so far it stays cool. I haven't had it in any summer traffic yet but it has two fans I can switch on. It's a noisy, uncomfortable, nasty old race car. Needless to say it isn't a daily driver, more of a cruise night/local show deal.
And agriculture. Sometimes it's pure luck, half way to Bakersfield one year my buddies alternator went teats up somewhere mid state Cali, maybe Williams, Willows who knows but got lucky. I don't recall the details, I think he wanted to keep his and not just flip it at the parts place. I don't think you will be that lucky with one of those Racemate thingamabobs.
I've brought this up here before and I swear I'm the only one that ever saw this because I never got one comment about it. Many years ago in some car rag I saw the coolest setup for hiding a generator on a flathead. Apparently this guy had issues about visible generators because it was a basic old style hot rod, no modern stuff that I could see. Anyhoo he had fabbed a mount that came off the block (I think) and affixed a 90 degree adapter to the crank snout that he connected a cable like those used on mechanical tachometers. This cable led to a generator mounted underneath the engine far enough back out of sight. The only one I've ever seen, anybody else seen one of these?
Not like that, But @loudpedal did a slick little number on his alternator in the green grenade car. Mounted it back at the bell housing area and the drive pulley was the crank spacer.
Running your alt off any part of the drive line is stealthy, but when the drive shaft is not turning (stopped traffic) you're not producing any power so you are now drawing from the battery. Not bad if you have a hot rod with no radio, no air-conditioning, or (brake) lights.
Since photobucket has destroyed the Internet this will have to do. To remove the belt you need to slide the converter back, IIRC the alternator goes thru an access door in the fire wall. Kind of a pain but how often do you need to do it? We just did an alternator job on a 05 ford. We had to drop the cradle down a few inches and pull the steering rack 1/2 way out. That was a stupid fucking job $1500 was the going quotes around this area. We were 6 hoses and 5 electrical connections away from dropping the whole thing out the bottom. He also moved the water pump someplace, See the hoses looped under the block
Get ahold of Alan Grove Components, Inc. I was having problems with getting my alternator right on my 327 and ran across his add in a magazine. He has brackets for mounting alternators in several places, I found one and it was perfect up high on the drivers side. his catalog has pictures and they are very helpful on the phone.
Well we modified the original top mount bracket for the time being. It’ll work for now, as I’ve got a lot of fish to fry yet. Thanks for all the input you guys Some real good info here..
Yep, and yet doesn’t look too different from what you have done ! Funnily enough, mine is also only a temporary job to get it running and it is intended to tidy it up later.
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