Thread: What have I done! IIa sitting out front.

After putting in the voltmeter and running around I could see that the info I gleaned from the interwebz about the Lucas 14AC later models having an internal reg was complete tosh. That combined with a tired old battery made longer journeys a bit of a lotto to see whether Bill had enough juice for the return trip. So I decided to fit the new pattern 17ACR.

Well didn't this open a full can of worms.

Trial fitting onto the Series 3 alternator bracket the 14AC was bolted to


left the alternator either hitting the engine mount


or too far forward


So I went to the old engine and scavenged the old dynamo mount which had been used to mount a 15AC


This still left the alternator hitting the engine mount, as the 15AC has a big cut away at the back that the 17ACR doesn't have.

Here you can see the differences in the alternators, from the top 14AC, 15AC 17ACR



And specifically the cut away in the 15AC


So there was nothing for it but to fab up a bracket from 6mm plate and 75x50 RHS tube


Attached to the 17ACR


Compared with the 14AC and OEM bracket


In position (after a few fittings to space fore and aft)




https://www.flickr.com/photos/77077238@N08/20853426230/

Wired it up and the first job was to head to the battery place for a new one.
Starts by breathing on the key, and a noticeable improvement in the headlights.

Took at while but very happy with the results

Reporting back on the alternator upgrade.

Its definitely worthwhile. I can run halogens and wipers without dimming at standstill, and it might be my imagination but Bill seems to be running smoother, certainly starts quicker.

About a month ago, I replaced the brake drums. Comparing between old and new, my old ones were way past runout and should have been binned about a decade ago.
I kept the current pads as they had very little wear, but was prepared to swap if I was getting any pulsing, etc.
All good and brakes work great after a few trial runs the get the adjusters dialed in.

I also bought the correct wiper set up, bar the centre wiper tube which is unobtainium ( but probably very fabbable ). The decision now is whether to fit the motor and wipers now or to hold off until after I've painted...

Finally my rear stop/tail lights are driving me mad, now the weather is getting hotter the plastic bulb holders are distorting and the bulbs are falling out.
I've done a bit of fettling trying different holders but they all seem to suffer from the same problem.
Next time I'll try trimming the spring to provide less push against the bulb, and hopefully that will stop the holder distorting.