The other week I was helping a coworker put a new alternator in his 2002 Dodge truck. I noticed that the mounting points were very simular and roughly the same size. So I said what the hell and used his core for test fitting for an afternoon.
It did fit with a few modifications.
Now the good part, in one of my diesel mags i remembered seeing an ad for a 200amp alternator for Dodge diesels.
I felt $350 bucks was well worth it and with the 1 wire conversion and took the plung.

I only needed to remove about a 1/2" from the rear mounting point of the alternator, and remove the middle middle mounting point of the black adjuster because the 1 ear is 3/8" longer.


http://www.paperformance.com/scripts...?idproduct=291

I neede the extra power for my now 3 intake fuel pumps plus running the rad fins on high most of the time in traffic. At idle it puts out more power than the stock's full capacity.

Here are some pics

 

i read your entire post and when i got to the 3 rotor pic i completely forgot everything i read I think this alternator will be useful for people with a lot of electronics or car audio.

 

In the first picture the belt looks like it's being torqued back. Is this just a strange picture angle?

 

interesting, thanks.

hc

 

My modified GM alt tested at 190 amps and cost under $ 300 but I had to make custom mounts which took more time than yours . Good job on your insight,I am sure more than a few will follow your work .

 

could you repost the pics please

 

Nice!

I just added another damn part to my shopping list thanks to this post...

 

is there any possibilty of over spinning the alternator and wearing it out prematurely considering the diesel spins at much lower rpms

 

Hold the phone. I'm currently testing an even cheaper solution. I'm currently running a 95-00 Nissan Maxima upgraded Hi output alternator on my 20b. It's a 160 amp unit that has two leads (just like the Fd's) 1 lead is for 12v power signal the other is voltage cluster "charge" output. Brand new I only paid $110.00 for it. It fits but needs a little work which I'm gonna take care of later. I've had it about two weeks. For whatever reason I could not get the vehicle to restart after test driving. When it was running, my voltage output was always showing a charge on my Haltech Gauge page (13.5-14v) but every time I shut the engine off, it would not have enough cranking amps to start up again. It would normally take about 20mins time for this to happen. With me doing my own engine swap, I thought the problem was with my hot start tuning or anything related to my conversion. It wasn't. I even disconnected the negative battery lead while the engine was running to see if the engine would still run (which it did). I was confused so I even tried a smaller alternator pulley (knowing that's it's current pulley makes it under driven with the fd's main crank pulley) and that didn't work. Today I finally figured out what my problem was.

I remember reading on one of the upgraded alternator sites that when installing an upgraded alternator, you have to also upgrade the alternator POWER cable AND the MAIN FUSE so the alternator reaches it's full output potential. Whatever your alternator output power rating is, that's what your main fuse should be. Not knowing this was my problem, I tried it anyways.

I already had some extra 00 cable left over from my battery relocation and used it. I then went to Advance Auto and bought an extra 60amp main fuse to go along with my 100amp factory main fuse. The fd's engine bay main fuse panel has an extra provision for this. I installed the fuse and cable and went for another test drive. Now it's working like it should.

Now that it's working, I think I have a better understanding of what was actually going on. Here's my theory! In the Fd, the alternator power cable is wired to the opposite side of the MAIN fuse (which is on the other side of the battery). In this configuration the amperage from the alternator has to travel through the main fuse to reach the battery. Apparently there is too much resistance in the original main fuse and factory alternator wire that a HI OUTPUT alternator's internal circuitry will cut the amperage output way down. So even though I was showing a charge, it was only putting out very little amperage. The amperage was so low that I was basically driving around on my battery's reserve capacity alone. If you have a hi battery reserve power, it may take you a while to realize that you have a problem as your battery will take longer to drain.

Matching the MAIN fuse to the alternator power output makes since because on my 91 S5 vert it's alternator output is 80 amps. Guess what... so is the main fuse. I think the two go hand in hand so if anyone out there is having charging problems with any upgraded alternator, this might be your problem.


For now I'm just glad I finally got it charging. I still need to source a smaller pulley and I wont have pics till I get it sorted correctly as it makes no since to give a full report while I'm still in the early testing phases. I think this extremely cheap hi output alternator solution can work for us. Stay tuned!

 

funny this came up today, I was just thinking today that there must be some good modern OEM alternators that could be adapted to our cars...

 

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-rx-7-1993-2002-parts-99/irp-winter-specials-140-amp-alternators-poly-motor-mounts-ngk-racing-cables-929234/

215 + 20 shipped back to you with your old alternator. I think it's a deal. 140amp.

-AzEKnightz

 

Yep. I actually could have purchased the 200 amp version for only $160.00 but didn't need that much power.

 

That's is a great deal for a direct fitment alternator however, I still think that even the upgraded FD alternators need the upgraded fuse and cable to go with it.