Alternator Recommendations??
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1. I disconnect batteries often, sometimes daily, but at least weekly.
2. No, it isn't. But at 250 amps per battery, it is better than my previous disconnects, which were rated at 100 amps each, and looked like this:
Don't get the green **** kind of disconnects. I ran the green ***** for a few years, and don't recall having problems, but common sense kept knocking on my front door, and in a rare moment of resolve, I finally answered by replacing the green **** kind with the knife switch kind. The delay was simply that the knife switch kind needed to be entirely taken apart and reconfigured in order to close the hood.
3) Couple of extra thoughts:
A) The knife switch kind are also stop gap measures, as the disconnects I really would like are very expensive, and remotely operable. So while I'm saving my pennies for that eventual upgrade, I don't want to spend more money in the interim on boat battery disconnect switches etc.
B) The knife style, once reconfigured to physically fit, handle 250 amps each, so there is 500 amps current carrying capacity thermally distributed across two batteries. There are no burn discolorations on the contact blade or arms. And of course, there is also ZERO corrosion of any kind, so rating surplus to overcome the resistance of corrosion is not a factor.
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From: Henderson, NV
Originally Posted by Y2KW57
It isn't possible to argue with 10 years of successful operation, so please don't misinterpret the following concern as something that is bound to happen.
External rectification is just that... external rectification. A remotely located, external rectifier, means that the un-rectified AC generated by the alternator is sent traveling along 2 to 4 feet of wire (read:antenna) to finally become rectified into DC.
My concern here would be that this antenna offers opportunities to radiate stray AC voltage and ripple... the kind of electromagnetic noise that I don't want to be picked up by the camshaft position sensor circuit, causing errors or shut downs.
I've had my fair share of bad alternators causing the transmission to have mechanical faults, due to the signal interference with the TSS (turbine speed shaft sensor), causing bad data, which led to what felt like catastrophic transmission failure. Fortunately, once I pulled the TSS fault code, I immediately thought of stray AC and EMF from a bad diode in the lower alternator, because the TSS works the same way as the CMP (camshaft position sensor, or CPS), in that both are Hall Effect type sensors. From this experience, in this model vehicle and engine, I would not want to have unrectified AC coursing through the engine compartment via an antenna like wire harness to become rectified into DC. Why add more opportunity for stray AC and ripple to be picked up?
Generally speaking, if the OEM's are not doing it this way, I give them the benefit of the doubt that they likely have justifiable reason for not doing it this way.
But that all being said, I'm not arguing with the success of others. I'm just offering my experience with electrical interference from alternators in this application as a single (actually dual, it happened twice) data point(s) for your consideration.
External rectification is just that... external rectification. A remotely located, external rectifier, means that the un-rectified AC generated by the alternator is sent traveling along 2 to 4 feet of wire (read:antenna) to finally become rectified into DC.
My concern here would be that this antenna offers opportunities to radiate stray AC voltage and ripple... the kind of electromagnetic noise that I don't want to be picked up by the camshaft position sensor circuit, causing errors or shut downs.
I've had my fair share of bad alternators causing the transmission to have mechanical faults, due to the signal interference with the TSS (turbine speed shaft sensor), causing bad data, which led to what felt like catastrophic transmission failure. Fortunately, once I pulled the TSS fault code, I immediately thought of stray AC and EMF from a bad diode in the lower alternator, because the TSS works the same way as the CMP (camshaft position sensor, or CPS), in that both are Hall Effect type sensors. From this experience, in this model vehicle and engine, I would not want to have unrectified AC coursing through the engine compartment via an antenna like wire harness to become rectified into DC. Why add more opportunity for stray AC and ripple to be picked up?
Generally speaking, if the OEM's are not doing it this way, I give them the benefit of the doubt that they likely have justifiable reason for not doing it this way.
But that all being said, I'm not arguing with the success of others. I'm just offering my experience with electrical interference from alternators in this application as a single (actually dual, it happened twice) data point(s) for your consideration.
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Luckily for me, he never once answered his phone when I called, nor did he return my voicemail messages or online inquiries. If I can't even get a hello back before the sale, what chance do I have of service after the sale? I suspect he sniffed me out as someone he'd rather not deal with. Can't say that I blame him.. the devil is in the details, and I'm often accused of being the devil's lieutenant.
His alternator set up does use two rectifier plates, the original one inside the alternator (with 6 diodes) and a duplicate outside of the alternator (with another 6 diodes).
The Ford OEM Prestolite Leece-Neville already has 12 diodes internally, which is afforded by the larger frame size, and the reorganization of the diode plate.
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