Hey everyone!

I'm new here and fairly new to Slant Sixin. I have an Alternator question:

I have a stock OE (50amp I think) alternator. I want to drop in a 75amp Powermaster chrome unit.

I'm swapping it out for 2 reasons: 1. I have a 600watt amplifier, 4 Kicker speakers and a Kicker dual 12" subwoofer box in the trunk!

I want more power. 2. The unit looks cool!

Is this a simple swap or do I need to upgrade the wiring?

I appreciate your thoughts!

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71 Swinger

Upgrades WILL be needed but I am not versed in this area, hopefully Slant Six Dan will chime in as he is the GUY...

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MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

cool, i'll hold tight.

Also I installed an Optima Red Top battery. Is that ok?

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71 Swinger

Yeah the Battery will be ok, as its just storage... Its the amp draw, and the outputs that is going to be the issue. As I said he will have links etc to help you out, and words of wisdom... BTW Welcome to the sight...

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MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

The Optima battery is fine.

The charging circuit must be upgraded before you upgrade the alternator -- it's marginally adequate for even the standard alternator. PowerMaster's alternator is probably not the best upgrade, either.

What deficiency are you finding in the car's electrical works that is driving you to look into upgrading? It may be a repair you need, rather than an upgrade.

Also, since you're new here: Welcome. Tune-up parts and technique suggestions in this thread. Carburetor operation and repair manuals and links to training movies and carb repair/modification threads are posted here for free download. Do the Fuel line mod and look into the HEI upgrade. Get the three books described in this thread as quickly as you can.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks a lot guys! I really appreciate it!

In terms of issues:

after I installed the stereo system I noticed the ALT was not center but to the right. After a drive to the beach it would move more towards the center but not ever dead center.

Since I installed the Optima I notice that it is dead center after it warms up. So I think that fixed the issue.

The Alternator most likely does not need to be replaced but I thought the sound system might like more juice?

Also I'd like to install an MSD 6A Digital Unit. I thought that might like more juice as well...

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71 Swinger

Better reliability, equal performance, and much lower cost than an MSD: do the HEI upgrade.

What kind of stereo (watts) did you install?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Slant six Dan's quote
"Better reliability, equal performance, and much lower cost than an MSD: do the HEI upgrade."

I second this.

Richard

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Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Thanks Guys!

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71 Swinger

The Stereo:

Alpine CDA - 105 has iPhone hookup

Front Speakers: Kicker 2 way 4" in YearOne Kickpanels
with speaker holes! ; )

Rear Speakers: Kicker 3 way 6x9"

Subwoofer 2 Kicker Comp 12" woofers, bridged
powered by a Crossfire 600watt amp

It sounds pretty good!!

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71 Swinger

WOW!! Yeah you are going to need an upgrade. What fuse was recommended for use with your amp? (will give a better idea of the load it creates)

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MRO....

Cheap, Fast, Reliable.... Pick 2...

The "watts" an amp is rated at is practically irrelevant, there are so many tricks they can play to tweak that number. It is best to look at the fuse rating.

Don't trust your ammeter ... put a voltmeter with a min/max function (in min mode) across the battery and crank it with a bassy cd. At idle in gear. This will show you the lowest a voltage will dip. I'm not familiar with your particular amp but I'm betting you'll far exceed the alternator's capability, especially if the headlights / breaklights and blower motor are on. Most current is drawn at the deepest part of the notes - happens too quickly to register on the ammeter. Also, how / where interms of wiring did you feed power to the amp?

I don't think its really worthwhile to upgrade to a higher power alternator that has the same case as the original. You may gain more power output at higher rpm but at idle you will actually loose it. If your not gonna go too much bigger on the stereo later then what you have one of the late model nippondenso alternators (believe 90 and 120a stock form or 170a aftermarket) will fit the bill and be relatively easy to adapt.

That comment doesn't make sense or stand to reason. There's an enormous variety of Chrysler alternators housed in more-or-less the same housing, with an enormous variety of output characteristics and curves. The housing type does not determine the alternator's performance.
That's true of the cheapie "upgrade kits" that contain a few parts meant to be swapped into an existing alternator, and it's often true of cruddy "remanufactured" alternators, but it's definitely not necessarily true of factory alternators.

That said,
is a very good upgrade as long as the charging system circuitry is suitably and safely upgraded beforehand, and we disregard most of the "aftermarket" (unreliable Chinese garbage) units and stick to real, actual Nippondenso alternators.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan, do you have said output curves of the various factory offerings? My comments were strictly for idle output, not what the rest of the curve looks like. I'd like to see how one factory alternator with the round/squareback style era case could put significantly more out at idle then another.

The housing determines what parts can go in, how much heat it can absorb... not sure what you mean by the housing type not determining performance. And of course, the rest of the car's wiring has to be up carrying the current regardless of how its produced

And I just stumbled across a pdf that had output/rpm performance curves that other day which I can't find.............

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes