honda alternator in a hot rod

Over the years i have heard of useing 1980's honda alternators in hot rods for clearence reasons, my question is, is there a honda one wire alternator that is smaller in diameter than youre common delco alternator and if so what year and model is it out of.my generator just bearly fits and i have had nothing but problems with it so it's time to move in to the 21'st century.

 

Well, you could always go with the whole Honda motor to help with clearance problems, then you'll really be ruining tradition. I wouldn't recommend putting Honda parts on your hot rod-- Don't do it. There has to be another solution.

And I felt guilty replacing my generator with a GM one wire...

-scott noteboom

 

One of my favoritest things about the HAMB is that questions that are WAY down the list on my projects get sorted out when someone else asks it before I do.

Thanks Brush and Explodesmobile

chili

 

I have to agree with notebooms, ruining the tradition. If it was me I would not use a honda alt. at all. I would even second guess the Pontiac firefly or Geo storm. I would want to think that my car is being built the way it would have been buil back in the day.
Just my 2 pennies

 

I have a 95 Civic beater, and the size of the alternator is not so considerably smaller than the GM 1 wire I have in my '57. Sounds to me like the Honda alternator is a means of trying to patch over a more serious problem. Incorrect bracketry or accessory placement for instance. What car is this going in? what motor? what other belt driven accessories? There are guys shoehorning SBCs with A/C, P/S, etc into some awful tight compartments and keeping it all under the hood.

As far as the aesthetics go, if it's going in a kustom, keep the hood shut and nobody is the wiser. But put it in a hot rod...and I just can't condone that kind of behavior.

 

I am going to be at that crossroad soon. Running hilborn efi on my 354 hemi there is no room for a gen. and need to keep battery up for the puter. I've heard that forklift alt. are the ticket but haven't started looking yet. Oh yeah I have the brackets to mt. a gm one wire but those are soooo common ,lookin for something more "industrial lookin" .Bob walker at Hot Heads is working on the problem too but haven't heard if he's come up with anything yet.Maybe someone out there works with industrial equip would know???

 

got a Honda Civic alt in my bucket. I built my frame 1" narrower in the front to clear the narrower 15 body firewall/cowl. Then I realized later that no GM alternator would clear between the motor and frame when mounted down low. Enos used to make a low mount and billet fan for a Honda Civic alt on a smallblock. But I think Enos is out of business now. Have not seen them advertise in years (they used to have that Black Box wiring kit).

My bucket does not require much amps so the Honda Civic alt is no problem.

BT

 

Pre 1988 Honda (Nippondenso) are small enough to fit inside an early Ford generator housing.

 

Summit Racing sells a small drag race alt. that should fit and it is one wire hook up. Littleman has it one his truck.

 

i have been running a 84-87 1500cc civic alt (carquest # 14757) on hot rods for a number of years they are not a one wire but they are internal regulated.they come with a serp.pully so you will have to machine a pully.power master sells a one wire version that is the same size,but more pricey.

-danny

 

Have any of you looked at this site which shows a Harley Davidson alternator built into the back of a water pump pulley? http://www.racemate.com/

The product shows the old style low output Harley charging system however I don't see why this couldn't be done with the newer style high out put Harley Alternator.

What would really look great is a Flathead with a racemate system in the back of each waterpump and a remote mount Radiator. What would look even better is if you could run one belt from the crank and around both water pumps which would make the belt a perfect triangle. Who needs a belt tightner when you have that much belt contact?

Might take a little modifying to get the belt behind the distributor/Magneto

 

I would fill the same way but when youre killing batteries cause youre charge rate is to low i gotta say **** tradition any ways it is a 64 motor that came stock with an alternator.

 

There was a great thread on hidden alternators a while back that talked about some of these issues... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89519&

 

I'm still going to run it hidden!~

 

ANyone got a picture of a 1st gen chevy V8 running a generator? Where did they mount?

 

mine mounts on the headers

 

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