I have 100/75 halogen globes, in my Kombi and if I run all my other electrical stuff I can go into voltage deficit, Kombi's only have 55 amp
alternators, there was a place doing 75 amp coversions out of a T3 Kombi, but apparently it was frying rectifiers.
Any advice on saving or getting more amps!
Thanks
Rob........
Where are you measuring the voltage??
The alternator should easily handle that, depending on what else you have running. On mine with all lights (60W high beam) on, including hazards and
2x100W spotties, sterio & CD player at idle I see 12.3V at the battery. BUT my dash mounted Volt meter reads 11.5V. This is because of the voltage
drop to the front. I connected the volt meter to an ignition controlled power lead in the front.
I have no experience with the 75W alternators but have heard they are also more suseptable to burning out. The extra power would be nice though.
as Andy says, voltage drop to a voltmeter
wired into a circuit even on a front engined car can be a problem, a simplistic check would be to temporily wire in an ammeter in the engine bay &
see what it shows with various things switched on & off, a 55amp alternator is quite powerful, I have one in my Humber, with a very small battery,
& with the eadlights on the voltmeter shows I am cactus at idle & with the brake lights on the indicators go real slow, but as soon as I am
over 1000RPM everything is hunky dory.
OK so there's a voltage drop between back and front, fair enough. I'm going to be fixing that fairly soon by running a new big fat cable up
to the front to reduce the resistance.
But I'm having a similar problem, I'm not getting enough power to run everything. I've got a fridge and I'm planning on hooking
up the (still unused) 12V heating element in the fridge soon, and I'm sure that with everything else on it'll be way too much for the
alternator to cope with. So I'd love to hear about bigger alternator options.
I had a 75 amp conversion on order from Allan at stokers siding, but he told me that they have decided to can the idea, he was getting them off Mark
Pell, but like I said they had a problem with them frying rectifiers, so they don't want to install them anymore!
I think my alternator is getting a little tired now, I spose if I got a NEW one, I probably wouldn't have any more trouble, the old one still
functions OK, it is just that I have the volt meter, and I am a compulsive gauge monitorer! when they start to go down, my blood pressure goes up.
Rob......
Robo,
As Kombikim said an ammeter is your best bet.
Purple Martin, I have already run extra power leads to the front for a few things I've added in, but the voltage drop I see mainly come through
the fact you need to attach to a power source controlled by the ignition, so I use the volt meter as a reference. I always check the voltage as I turn
on (~12.5V) voltage drop when cranking (~11V) which tells you the condition of the battery, and what level it comes up to when charging. As long as it
is the same as I have seen in the past I'm happy.
If your using more than 55amps, not too sure of your options. A second Alt.???
OK everyone seems to be in agreement that the 75amp alternators fry rectifiers. But I would have thought that the two should be replaced together. I
wouldn't expect a rectifier designed to cope with 55 amps to cope with 75, I'd expect it to fry. So if I replaced the alternator, I'd
expect to have to replace the regulator with something more heavy duty as well
Has anyone tried this, or heard of it being done? Bigger alternator AND bigger regulator! It should work, surely?
Good question! I am going out to stokers today I will quizz Allan about it and get back to you!
Rob......
Allan said you could upgrade the rectifier, (not the regulator) but questioned the expence, he said it would not be worth it, he said to put some of
those new 55/60 xenon globes in it and, can the 100/75's then the 55 amp should handle everyting else.
Rob......
[Edited on 28-2-2003 by Robo]
Pure Xenon spotties are only 35W and are stronger that any 100W halogens. They come with a starter like a fluro light. Look cool, but I'm too scared to ask what their worth :o
if you put them ordinary halagon sealed beams in its best if you put relays in on each light mainle highbeam but if you use the twin relays you can do
both it takes a lot of the load of the wireing and makes the lights work much better put the relays near the fuse box easy to sort whitch is whitch
and the main power is there
steve (greedy)
On my '77 the original fuse box had 2 or 3 spare fuse holders and 2 or 3 spare relay sockets (it was a while ago, and to lazy to go look) which I used for my extra lights and Horn. All original. :thumb