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Senior Member
Hello all,
On our way back from the Channel Islands on Friday our alternator decided life was no longer worth living. I pulled it off to replace and now find myself in a quandary. Any and all opinions are welcomed.
The alternator is a modified Delco 12SI-94. A previous owner way back had the electrical redone, and the electrician cracked the case, removed the internal voltage regulator, and machined in terminal studs for external regulation and the tachometer. The external regulator is an older Heart Ideal.
Our plans are to spend this next season cruising the Sea of Cortez for six months. So whatever I end up with I’ll grab a spare. So my choices seem to be:
Rip it all out and throw in a Ballmar alt and regulator. They make one that will fit the bracket. But, if I do end up a spare it’s going to cost at least $1500 to go this route, maybe even $2k. That’s a lot of cheddar. Almost the cost of the new arch I’d rather get.
Pay an auto electric shop to rebuild what I have. And have them make the same modifications to a new unit. I’ll put the new alternator in place and keep the old as a spare. This is the ~$500 option.
Or, what I’m kind of leaning towards, buy a pair of new alternators and modify them myself. This is a fairly common mod and there’s multiple sets of instructions and videos online showing the process. I can buy the pair of alternators for $130 and I have all the bits to mod them laying around (except for a trio of insulated spacers which I’d have to find/fab but that’s like $1.) If I go this route I plan to lead the wires out rather than machine insulated studs through the case.
I have the time and the shop/tools to do the work, as I can do it after hours at my place of employment. If I have to spend money on the charging system I’d rather dump it into solar. I plan to run the engine an hour or so every other day just for hot water, so whatever I decide will get use.
Thoughts?
Josh
On our way back from the Channel Islands on Friday our alternator decided life was no longer worth living. I pulled it off to replace and now find myself in a quandary. Any and all opinions are welcomed.
The alternator is a modified Delco 12SI-94. A previous owner way back had the electrical redone, and the electrician cracked the case, removed the internal voltage regulator, and machined in terminal studs for external regulation and the tachometer. The external regulator is an older Heart Ideal.
Our plans are to spend this next season cruising the Sea of Cortez for six months. So whatever I end up with I’ll grab a spare. So my choices seem to be:
Rip it all out and throw in a Ballmar alt and regulator. They make one that will fit the bracket. But, if I do end up a spare it’s going to cost at least $1500 to go this route, maybe even $2k. That’s a lot of cheddar. Almost the cost of the new arch I’d rather get.
Pay an auto electric shop to rebuild what I have. And have them make the same modifications to a new unit. I’ll put the new alternator in place and keep the old as a spare. This is the ~$500 option.
Or, what I’m kind of leaning towards, buy a pair of new alternators and modify them myself. This is a fairly common mod and there’s multiple sets of instructions and videos online showing the process. I can buy the pair of alternators for $130 and I have all the bits to mod them laying around (except for a trio of insulated spacers which I’d have to find/fab but that’s like $1.) If I go this route I plan to lead the wires out rather than machine insulated studs through the case.
I have the time and the shop/tools to do the work, as I can do it after hours at my place of employment. If I have to spend money on the charging system I’d rather dump it into solar. I plan to run the engine an hour or so every other day just for hot water, so whatever I decide will get use.
Thoughts?
Josh