So would an early 60's build have an alternator or a generator?

I'm building an early 60's styled '55 chevy straight axle street racer/show rod, could it of had an alternator back then or would only generators be available?
Thanks for the help

 

62 back had a generator if my memory serves. Chevy put alternators on from 63 on!

 

generator were still in production I believe until around 64 I think.. (maybe 63)

 

All of my old Hot Rod magazines from the years 1963 & 1964 feature cars equipped with either alternators or generators. Both were in use. Many of the generators were chromed.

 

Thanks....looks like I'll be running a generator

 

you can go either way and be correct for an early 60's build.

I bet guys building hotrods in 63/64 were hard after those new-fangled alternators and that was part of their builds

 

Ive used Mopar alternators with external regulator on my roadster they came out in 59 and ran the same style through the 60's i think they might be the first alum cased unit if i remember correctly.. mine charges up to 14 volts i think that the Mopar charging systems were known for that...Oh i got the idea from old car craft magzs they were used back then too.

 

I dont remember being too excited about converting to a alt in 60s .... I had replacing brushes and light sanding the armature and reg points down to a science! LOL

but either way is gonna be correct.

 

My first car was a new 1963 Chevrolet Impala Convertable, 283, auto. = Pig. But it had an alternator if this helps.

 

Chevrolet made an alternator an option in '62 and standard in '63---same as Pontiac.

 

Magneto, no other charging system.....

 

Yessssssssssssssssss! Good choice, you're using your marbles and keeping your car more period correct.

 

I know the Olds F-85 and Buick Special switched to an alternator in 1963.

Even when alternators became available the majority of people stayed with generators for a while. The rotor windings in some of the early alternators had trouble with higher RPMs or the quick speed changes from drag race type shifts. Diode and/or regulator failures were also a problem on some early alternators. At the time, all those potential problems were reasons to stick with the known quantity of a generator.

 

Powermaster makes an alternator that looks like a vintage generator. The best of both worlds.

 

Alternator, but the early external regulator type.
There were how to articles on putting the Mopar alternator in everything as soon as it became available on the '59 cars in late '58.

 

Just because it was available on a brand new car from the factory, that doesn't mean it was immediately an accepted thing on the typical hotrod. Unless you new someone that worked in the service department, very few knew how to wire one. I guess some rich kids could spend the money to buy the newest technology for their hot rod but like most all new technologies it takes a few years for the knowledge to get down to the average guy. I remember them not being common place until the late 60s on a run of the mill hotrod. My first hotrod with an alternator was built in the early seventies and I had to seek out someone that knew where the wires went. There was no Google or HAMB to get any help.

 

Chrysler was the first automaker to use alternators across the board, starting in the 1960 model year.

So, why wouldn't an alternator be used in a hot rod build in the day???

 

It could have been done (alternator).

 

Could it? or would it? I think they're different questions with different answers

 

Darn it, Don't want bobwop to think I am sucking up here, but I think he hit the nail on on the head ....this is totally different than a restoration....
Cheers....

 

This could earn you a free beer in a bar bet. Most guys would swear it was 64 for Ford. I have no idea if it was an option for regular Fords or only on ambulances and fire trucks with lots of loads but it was "available" in 1958. I've never seen one. The first alternator that I ever remember seeing on a hotrod was indeed a Chrysler unit. It was pretty cool for a while just like tuned port injection was for a few years but I came back to 97 carbs and generators for basically the same reason...the looks. Nothing says old hotrod like a generator hanging out in the breeze.

 

This is the facts,I was there and building rods and customs,yes we were putting in alt. and polishing the alum cases too.

 

Yes it would. But it wouldn't have anything without an external generator.

I think GM was using an alternator by '64 it would have had an external regulator. I am probably wrong but I think they were.

 

'63 and '64 some high RPM 'Vettes were throwing solder from Delco generators...there was a larger generator pulley we used to replace to slow them down. Guys at the drags mostly dropped the generator belt in the 'build up area', run off the battery with no water pump...
The parts manager at Courtesy Chevrolet had a 'kit' that was available over the counter: It was a new Motorola alternator conversion, with a bracket, wiring harness, and regulator.
When I saw the kit, I recognized it immediately. It was MoPar.
Not a GM recommended part, just an add-on from a Drag Race supporting dealership.
This kit disappeared when the GM Delco alternator system was introduced.

(Courtesy Chevrolet was one of the first to give a 'Racers Discount', as long as the 'racer' participated at the drags. I was a Ford guy, but got the discount as I worked on a large host of Chevys at the time)

 

Those early Mopar alternators are pretty cool looking with the finned aluminum case.

 

I think if one were to check he would see that alternators were available of GM cars in 63 but they may have been an "option" on some models. Ford stayed with generators longer into the 60's.

A straight axle 55 chevy probably isn't going to see any long road trips anyhow unless it's on a trailer so I don't see an issue with running a generator. But if you had a 63 327 in it that theoretically was pulled from a 63 Impala there is a real good chance that in the mid 60's you would have taken alternator and all and swapped the whole thing into a 55. It would have to be the early alternator with external regulator to be correct though as the internal regular alternators didn't come out until 1972.
These were blatantly bummed off the net for the occasion and all creds go to the original source.
62 327 in an Impala

63 409 in an Impala.


But most likely a guy in that time frame would have used the generator that came on the 55 if it and the regulator were still on the 55 when he started.

 

'48 Chev,
I don't know if alternators were standard fair in '63 from your pics I assume that they were. I know that when we needed an alternator for a rod we looked for a '64 Impala in the wrecking yard, never found one that was running a genny.

A lot of the old flathead guys I knew were running alternators on their flatties, blasphemy I know but they were. That was around '68 but one of them told me that as soon as he could get his hands on an alternator he was running one.

 

Had a stock '64 Caddy that was still equipped with a generator.

 

Chevy ac cars in 62 had alternaters it was an option on others. The big problem with Delco generators they didn't like high RPM. Thats why Corvette used a big pulley.

 

+1. somewhere here in the house I have a circa 1962 Hot Rod magazine with a picture of LeRoi 'Tex' Smith at the desk of a parts house where he is seeking help to reassemble a Chrysler alternator he had taken apart to polish the case.