installed this yoke driven unit last spring, have had no problems so far, charges 14 volts at about 20 mph. i used a gm alternator, cs 130, wired as a two wire set up, so it starts charging at low rpms. put a small indicator light under the dash that glows at less than 12 volts. used a gm front serpentine pulley, about 7.5" in dia. sat in line for about 40 minutes at idle, had about 11 volts on the meter, shut it off went in and registered, came out and fired right up. if you are thinking about doing this, i think it is worth a try. i have my drawing for the bracket on dxf format, if you would like to have it i will send it via email (no charge).
Looks great. How does the charging light work - what do you use to sense the low voltage? Do you think water/road grime will be an issue?
Smitty... Excellent setup. Imagine a fully dressed flathead with no out-of-place alternator, (no generator either; just the early Ford generator bracket with pulley on the front of the intake manifold) Very clean bracketry, good pulley ratio. I'll PM you...
I was thinking along the lines of a Henry J with a big block or even my stude with the olds motor. No alt under the hood to clutter things up, just an idler to adjust the fan belt. Smitty, How did you mount the pully to the rear end yolk?
Here is an attachment of the adjustable bracket in .dxf format for those that are interested. It is utilized with the Speedway flathead alternator bracket.
Geez, looking at the ***le I was expecting something to make Bluegr*** sound better! Seriously, nice install. Not sure how practical it would be for street use
NIce and clean looking... wasn't one of the main concerns with this set-up the lack of charging in certain stop-go scenarios?
a wire from the ignition to the alternator (to excite) runs through the light, and parrallel to the light is a 470 ohm resistor. (so if the light is burned out the alternator still will get the voltage from ignition). when the ignition is turned on the wire acts as a ground at the alternator and the light is on, as the alternator spins and gets to equal voltage of the battery the ground goes away and the light goes out.
forgot to say that the bracket has 12 holes for multi positioning, i have it up above the pig at about 10 oclock. ran for 30 minutes in the rain once with no problem. (knock on wood)
my yoke is a torque tube conversion unit. we chucked the pulley into the lathe and cut to size, then welded to yoke
in town, anytime you are over 20 mph the voltmeter reads 14 volts, so as long as you are moving, your charging. so far no problem.
awesome I like your idea for the low voltage warning system for those asking if it has problems in the rain..why should it? alts. under the hood get rained on splashed on and dirty too. I had a friend that ran an alt under his T bucket..In Michigan no less in everything our weather could throw at him from April til october..never had any weather related issues and as far as i can remember i never heard him say that it left him stranded
If you are humming down the road, and the alternator begins to sing, does the banjo rear end play along?
It looks as though Flatt and Scruggs were involved. Tires-- Flatt, Pin Stripping of flames---Scruggy Checked out pictures of your ride, when do you take off all the billet?
Looks great even though I had to go back and take a serous second look for things to click. Probably the only problem a guy might have with that setup is if you stayed in slow moving cruise night traffic for hours on end with the lights on and the tunes going but guys who would run that setup probably aren't into big audio systems in their cars anyhow. Little drain, no problem. Run a mag on the engine with the alternator on the axle and no radio or ac and all the issues would be solved.
The Jalopy Journal
