Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

I guess more than anything I am wanting to vent, but it's at least a chance one of you has some advice.

When I changed my master cylinder on Bod D. Deuce a few weeks back I kept asking myself, "what bonehead designed this thing with that one impossible bolt next to the frame rail ?" I later concluded it was a fluke and no engineer is perfect. Well today I found myself in a similar situation.

I spend a hour or so removing my alternator and installing the big one I bought a while back. I was very frustrated in the fact that there is no good way to reach the bolts that hold the puppy on. I was exceptionally trilled when I realized I would have to remove the alternator again and swap the pulleys or better yet buy another pulley. Oh the joy of doing something several times. Is everything on this truck that hard to reach? There is so much room under the hood yet so much is hard to reach. I am alone or are these alternators a pain in the ****.

Joe "Smiley" Trapp

I didn't think the bolts were hard to get at, gettin' that pig back in the place where it is supposed to be was a PITA for me.

Sorry Joe! I thought you had been through this already, or I would have warned you!!

Where did you come up with the right pulley? When I did mine, I ended up boring the pulley from the deuce alt, as the shaft size is bigger on the dual voltage.

Also, believe it or not, dont expect that 12v side to create any juice unless you keep a battery hooked to it. They are very strange acting. I thought mine was shot until I put a good battery on it, and let it run for a while.

A couple days ago, I changed an air hose under the dash. It would have been a lot easier if I was a midget contortionist with tentacles instead of arms. Turns out, the hose wasn't the source of my leak, so I get to crawl under there again. Woohoo!

I also rebuilt my master cylinder that day. That part wasn't so hard, but then some thoughtful mechanic had removed the upper left bolt for me in years past. I don't think I'm in a hurry to replace that one!

Hmm, I was just looking at the TM, and there's supposed to be some kind of bracket bolted on the right side of the master cylinder. Mine doesn't seem to have that.

Unless your truck is a winch there is no bracket,Mark.The PTO shifter bracket bolts onto the side of the master cylinder.

Re: RE: Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

mangus580 said:

Sorry Joe! I thought you had been through this already, or I would have warned you!!

Where did you come up with the right pulley? When I did mine, I ended up boring the pulley from the deuce alt, as the shaft size is bigger on the dual voltage..

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Well that stinks. I was trying it with the dual voltage pulley. I was hoping the belts would work although I figured they would not. I will be pulling it all apart in a few minutes.

mangus580 said:

Also, believe it or not, dont expect that 12v side to create any juice unless you keep a battery hooked to it. They are very strange acting. I thought mine was shot until I put a good battery on it, and let it run for a while.

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I already have the 12v battery in place. My biggest concern was knowing for sure if it was going to stop charging the battery. Did you put a volt meter on the 12 volt side?

Thanks,
Joe

RE: Re: RE: Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

The dual voltage pulley is too big a diameter for stock belts, and also not the right groove width.

In my haste for getting it to aberdeen, I literally ran a charge wire from the alt to the battery, and my 12v wire runs up through a rusthole in the floor of the cab right now! No volt meter yet (in the plans though)

What do you mean by 'stop charging the battery'?

Re: RE: Re: RE: Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

mangus580 said:

What do you mean by 'stop charging the battery'?

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I am worried the regulator will not work right and over charge the battery. I always worry about anything that I am modifying from it's intended purpose. I always assume thing will fail. That could be a disorder of some kind.

RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

You all have to step back and realize that the M35 was designed and put into production only 4 full years after the conclusion of WWII.... black and white TV was still being civilianized and back then folks could spell...The whole truck was built with common hand tools and the 60 amp alternator was just a dream for some kid. Laying on your back on a genuine creeper is relaxing for some folks...mods to MV are at your own risk... I eschew the use of non air powered tools and patience on all this stuff... Olive D. Hooker has moved to Tennessee, and is now very happy.

Re: RE: Re: RE: Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

Blythewoodjoe said:

mangus580 said:

What do you mean by 'stop charging the battery'?

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I am worried the regulator will not work right and over charge the battery. I always worry about anything that I am modifying from it's intended purpose. I always assume thing will fail. That could be a disorder of some kind.

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I have had mine setup since May and have had no issue. I was shocked, (not literally) when I hooked the battery up... as I put in essentially a 'junk' battery. I knew it would take/hold a charge for short term serving my purpose. When I first checked voltage, it was charging at 18 volts! Granted, prior to starting it was like 8 or 9..... After about 20 minutes of run time, it came down and settled in about 14, and has been there ever since.

Re: RE: Re: RE: Holy cow! Who engineered these things?

Blythewoodjoe said:

mangus580 said:

What do you mean by 'stop charging the battery'?

Click to expand...

I am worried the regulator will not work right and over charge the battery. I always worry about anything that I am modifying from it's intended purpose. I always assume thing will fail. That could be a disorder of some kind.

Click to expand...

In a world where many things designed to do a certain thing fail all the time under normal operating conditions, I wouldn't call your instinct a "disorder". I would call it "Intelligent anticipation".

Can ya'll post pics of this alternator set up?

ken said:

Can ya'll post pics of this alternator set up?

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I checked around today and I will have to remove my stock alternator pulley and have it drilled out like Mike did. I will take some pictures as soon as I get it back on.

I dont have any pics of mine.... but I can tell you its tight quarters.... Mostly looks like an alternator, with an extra wire on it.

Well I hate to do it, but I need to buy an alternator pulley for the 60 amp alternator. Anybody have one they would like to part with? I do not have time to take mine to a machine shop right now, I need to use the truck today. That also means I am going to mount the old alternator back on the truck.

I also want to keep my old alternator as a spare or maybe put on a 5 ton truck that has nothing just to be able to crank it and move it around. The water pump is a good thing to have turning.

Thanks,
Joe Trapp

Joe, if you are shopping for a pulley.... you might just try to find the right diameter one for the new alt. Check with Graingers or MSC, as I believe both had what is needed.... But alas, I am cheap and impatient.

That was original plan yesterday. I called one of the industrial belt and pulley places here and they do not sell alternator pulleys. The one's you buy for commercial use are not rated for the RPM's and stuff of the alternator. I tried other places and found out that pulleys are usually unique to the vehicle. I really wanted to find one with 3 belt groves for the AC compressor I wanted to install. Oh well.

I am cheap and impatient too, but patients is whoopin' my but.

Well I finally got the big alternator installed. It seems to work. It started to charge the 24 volt system and kept the needle right on the right side of the "green" zone. Head lights where nice and bright. The 12 volt side was registering in the strong zone on my cheap-o battery/charger tester. I had to pay a machine shop $50 to drill out the pulley to fit the big alternator. I also bent the tension bracket on the engine so it would go in front of the alternator to give me a little more room for the wires on the voltage regulator. I hope to take it out some tomorrow and see if the batteries blow up

Here's a picture of the thing installed. This mammy is heavy. I still don't have anything attached to the "AC" post. Anybody want to venture a guess what that post is for?

the a/c post is probably for a/c........... odd as that sounds. but really many vehicles have a a/c tap to run the vehicle tach. what was the alt intended for??

I think these alternators are off of hummers. I down loaded the TM from this site for one of the hummers and it has this alternator in it. My mechanic friend thinks it goes to some light or something that is either lit when the alternator is working properly or lit when it's malfunctioning.