I installed one of these:



It's only 40 amps but that's better than 35. And its incredibly small. As I recall, I only had to drill out the larger mounting ear....

Dean

It's normal for the charge light to flicker at tick over if you have it set to the factory setting. Just tweaking it up 50-75 rpm will usually put it out if it annoys you. Dynamos. don't put out much below 1000 rpm and will then increase up to 1500rpm or a bit more. Means that chugging around town won't put much back into your battery if it's a bit down. Alternators cure that and put out good amps from a little above tick over. With the dynamo, don't worry if the light glows a bit if you have lights on and also use the fan, it's just the way the Bosch system balances itself. Making sure the main fuse is making good contact and also the connecting tags are clean and tight can help this a bit.
55amps should be fine, that's a lot more than you are getting from the nominally 35 amp dynamo. Don't go bigger unless you need it. It'll just be more drag on the belt, losing a little engine power. The SWEM article is good and Ron will give you any advice you need. As he says, the Delco alts are cheap and available everywhere, which is a big plus. As an option, the Denso units are small and neat, You can find one from a Geo but there are plenty of others about.

Hi Ron, our posts crossed over.

Chris;

Q1; Amp Indicator will typically come ON lightly at idle with Gen installed...you can tickle the idle RPMs up just a bit to increase Gen output and minimize this, but it is absolutely normal...Generator doesn't produce enough power at idle to supply all loads, so Battery must contribute (Discharge condition!) If Battery is very low, recharge overnight with a line powered charger...don't expect the Generator to do it...it would take forever, especially at city RPMs...and possibly present an excessive load on the engine, affecting idle, and possibly contributing to AMP Ind at Idle symptom...Load test of Battery is not a bad thing.

Q2; See answers to your private email. OP notes correctly that output of Gen/Alt is rated in (A)mps not (W)atts, and ~60A is the recommended output rating when converting an Alt.

Cheers

In my town we have an alternator/starter rebuilt shop. Any near you?
As far as the 55w, it's actually amps. System doesn't care if you go higher in amps, just not lower. It's only going to draw what it needs.
--
Post Back. That's whats makes this forum work.