You asked for pics of my homemade generator and here they are.Solid piece of alum.(free) took one hour to make hollow then put johndeer alternator $55.00 off ebay that was machined down and preessed in side. The little shaft at the front rides in a early ten hole bearing plate that also has two bearings side by side to carry the load of the fan.Darrell
nice install. How long have you been running it ? any problems with it getting hot from the lack of air getting to it ?
Thanks slag kustom I forgot about the cooling problem that others had with this.Now here is my thinking witch burns more of my gray matter up.All alternators pull air in the front and out the back towards the firewall now the thinking part stock generators pull air in the back and out the front so I cut the fins off the pulley and let the two fans in the alternator do the work it has one at the front and rear one pushs in and the rear pulls the air out.I wonder if this is why the others burn up from no air movment.I get good air movement through it.The front bearing plate is the early ten hole and I milled some slots in the bottom where you can't see them and the one at the rear. I drove this car about 30 hours total this summer but no long trips 45 minutes is the longest.Darrell
Very nice;I like the fan idea. If you do another put a bit of heat sink compound on all surfaces that will touch the new case. Aluminum to aluminum contact corrodes fairly rapidly and heat transfer will suffer as well as possibly creating a poor ground. You can get that white goo at RatShack or at a computer store.
Your hidden alternator looks very nice, and I really hope you have no cooling issues. However, the statement above is incorrect, as some/most 1st and 2nd generation (enclosed) alternators, like the GM 10/12SI, have the air entering the rear, cooling the diodes and internal/attached regulators first, and exiting the front. Many modern designs bring air in from the front and rear, pushing it out radially through the vented main body. The higher the amperage draw, the more critical air flow is, and is the reason many of the small alternators placed in generator-sized cases fail. JFYI
The one I used pulled air from the front I didn't mean all just these little ones.it has been in the car for ten years now so think I'm alright.
If you want to get a similar alternator at you local Parts House, then look for a ~1989 Suzuki Swift alternator. Almost identical to the John Deer.
It is a small Denso alternator used on many Japanese diesel tractors (John Deere uses Yanmar engines in their small tractors) and Japanese cars. I did a 6V gen to 12V alt conversion on my Oliver OC46 crawler after another guy posted his conversion on an Oliver forum. His short video can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B37YWbXImTE These alternators are tiny, not much bigger than your fist but they are not high amperage. I used Denso # 101211-1170 which fits a John Deere 3320 & 3520 tractor. The 101211 series is available with many different mounting lug and output lug configurations, choose what fits your needs. some links: http://rareelectrical.ecomm-search.com/search?SearchTerm=denso+alternator http://dixie-electric.com/dixie/pdf/PN_pdf/ALT/146_093_000.pdf
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