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I'll chime in here and say that if you bolt in that big alternator without upgrading the wiring, the weak point is now the wiring and you'll burn up the charge circuit if you don't take that into account.
That high of voltage isn’t causing an issue? I would be a little concerned of voltage above 14.4. I have seen and had issues above them at number
Negatory sir, it is a Requirement for proper Equalization of the individual cells in the battery, and it takes two (2) hours at 14.8 volts to get the cells equalized.
I'll chime in here and say that if you bolt in that big alternator without upgrading the wiring, the weak point is now the wiring and you'll burn up the charge circuit if you don't take that into account.
I agree with you 100%. To support your statement, the alternator charge circuit goes through the engine wire harness and at the cost of a new harness plus installation, not to mention the possible fire hazard, repercussions could be astronomical up to a total loss from fire.
My OEM size alternator is charging through the engine wire harness in it's current configuration although all of my battery cables have been upgraded with a Custom Battery Cable kit using 2/0 with the exception of the starter to solenoid and solenoid to the passenger battery are 3/0.
When I pull the trigger on the 240 amp Mechman, at least this is my current choice unless I find a better alternative, I will run a 2/0 from the alternator positive to the drivers side battery. Maybe, and I'm unsure about another 2/0 from the alternator to the passenger battery so both batteries have a direct path from the alternator. Also I will run a ground from the alternator housing to the driver side battery terminal but I'm unsure if this will be needed since I already have a 2/0 ground from the negative side of each battery to the block/body.
So I had ended up buying the 230 amp alternator from the parts store needing my truck together. I did make extra cables and whatnot. Much too my surprise the alternator wasn't working right out the box. Came with a jani bushing and the OEM pulley didn't fit right in the shaft. I found this out the hard way when the pulley keeps slipping on the shaft causing fluctuating in everything. My boss ended up with the same one and same problem. I ordered him a 320 amp mechman. I have already upgraded his battery cables as well. Scince my alternator from the parts house was free to me, and since adding a washer behind the pulley has made it work probably 80-90%, I'm wondering if a tck weld from nut to pulley would fix it right up? If not, I'm ordering a mechman 320.
I bought the MechMan 320 almost two years ago, and no regrets at all.
it regulates at 14.8ish to 15ish depending on Ambient Temperature when first started up..... it generally settles down to 14.7+ after that.
Bolt on, no issues.
hope your wiring harness is not mangled, mine was butchered and I had to run a New Wire from F2-45 in the Excursion's fuse panel to the Alternator's " I " terminal.
So I had ended up buying the 230 amp alternator from the parts store needing my truck together. I did make extra cables and whatnot. Much too my surprise the alternator wasn't working right out the box. Came with a jani bushing and the OEM pulley didn't fit right in the shaft. I found this out the hard way when the pulley keeps slipping on the shaft causing fluctuating in everything. My boss ended up with the same one and same problem. I have already upgraded his battery cables as well. Scince my alternator from the parts house was free to me, and since adding a washer behind the pulley has made it work probably 80-90%, I'm wondering if a tck weld from nut to pulley would fix it right up?
Tristan,
You never said what type of 230 amp alternator you received from the Parts House, only that it was "powder coated."
The powder coating implies that you have a black alternator, that could be a knock off of the Leece Neville 230 amp alternator, but this is only a guess, based on Leece Neville being first to market with powder coated alternators to resist aluminum corrosion, which looks like this:
White powdery aluminum corrosion forming on slip ring end frame of OEM 110 amp 6G small case alternator.
The Leece Neville 230 amp is the largest frame alternator that will fit in this application, with the largest rotor, largest stator diameter, and most importantly, the largest diameter internal fans (there are two fans inside) that move air through the largest number and size of holes in the case... for theoretically the highest amount of heat rejection efficiency per unit of operation time.
Three sizes of alternators for Ford diesel engines that use a 3 bolt T configured pad mount. Annotations added by Y2KW57.
If you have the giant black alternator on the right, or a knock off facsimile of the same, then know that it takes a pass through wrench in combination with an axially positioned Allen key to properly tighten the pulley to the alternator shaft.
I would not tack weld the pulley onto the rotor shaft. The alternator shaft rotates at nearly 3x the speed of the engine RPM. So when you are cruising down the road at 2,000 RPM, the alternator is spinning at 6,000 RPM. The higher the RPM, the more sensitive a spinning shaft is to any imbalances.
Besides, alternators are rebuildable, and welding the pulley onto the shaft might negate that opportunity.
If you have the giant black alternator on the right, or a knock off facsimile of the same, then know that it takes a pass through wrench in combination with an axially positioned Allen key to properly tighten the pulley to the alternator shaft.
Really? ... I thought thats what impacts were made for...
From old air cooled VW generator pulleys, all the way up to those fancy-pants clutched pulleys that are installed on a lot of vehicles these days, the UggaDugga machine was always my first reach.
You never said what type of 230 amp alternator you received from the Parts House, only that it was "powder coated."
The powder coating implies that you have a black alternator, that could be a knock off of the Leece Neville 230 amp alternator, but this is only a guess, based on Leece Neville being first to market with powder coated alternators to resist aluminum corrosion, which looks like this:
White powdery aluminum corrosion forming on slip ring end frame of OEM 110 amp 6G small case alternator.
The Leece Neville 230 amp is the largest frame alternator that will fit in this application, with the largest rotor, largest stator diameter, and most importantly, the largest diameter internal fans (there are two fans inside) that move air through the largest number and size of holes in the case... for theoretically the highest amount of heat rejection efficiency per unit of operation time.
Three sizes of alternators for Ford diesel engines that use a 3 bolt T configured pad mount. Annotations added by Y2KW57.
If you have the giant black alternator on the right, or a knock off facsimile of the same, then know that it takes a pass through wrench in combination with an axially positioned Allen key to properly tighten the pulley to the alternator shaft.
I would not tack weld the pulley onto the rotor shaft. The alternator shaft rotates at nearly 3x the speed of the engine RPM. So when you are cruising down the road at 2,000 RPM, the alternator is spinning at 6,000 RPM. The higher the RPM, the more sensitive a spinning shaft is to any imbalances.
Besides, alternators are rebuildable, and welding the pulley onto the shaft might negate that opportunity.
I would never weld the pulley to the shaft. I was thinking about welding the nut to the pulley so it would force the pulley to spin and the nut would self tighten keeping everything tight and functional.
My alternator is the big black version. And the problem is that the pulley keeps tightening until the pulley hits the alternator. The shaft seems to be the wrong size for the OEM pulley. The alternator does NOT come with a pulley and they don't sell one for it. It says to use the OEM pulley which has clearance issues with the alternator. My fix was a shim behind the pulley. But because it's the incorrect shaft, the pulley slips regardless of the shim. I can rev my truck up and make my lights brighter inside the cab. Alternator works fine but can't keep the pulley from slipping. I was wondering about putting a lock washer under the nut and seeing if it would hold the pulley to the nut instead of welding it.
I Ended up with the alternator for free so, I'm not out anything other than time and if the pulley would stick to the shaft better I'd be golden.
What material is the pulley made of? (If it is OEM Ford, you may or may not be successful welding a steel nut to the center of it)
(Ford OEM alternator pulleys are significantly lighter in weight than all of the aftermarket pulleys that I've ever handled.)
How do you know that your pulley is Ford OEM?
If you posted photos of your predicament, others may see something that might otherwise seem normal, or go unnoticed.
In my photo above, the pulley I am mounting is a black Ford OEM upper alternator ratio pulley. I know this because I have had custody of my 2000 model year truck since calendar year 2000.
The alternator shaft in the photo above is that of a genuine Prestolite Leece Neville 230 amp alternator that was built in USA at the Leece Neville alternator plant in upstate New York, about 9 years ago.
Nowadays, there are a lot of big black lookalike "230 amp" alternators made in you know where, so it is difficult to say whether you are a victim of cost cutting corner cutting, and have a substandard rotor shaft... or if you actually have an aftermarket pulley that was recovered from a Motorcraft alternator that had been previously remaned.... or if your currently chosen pulley tightening method is not as reliable or successful as the method recommended by Prestolite Leece Neville, which is illustrated in my photos above.
I've never had a pulley walking issue using the pulley tightening method that the manufacturer recommended.
What material is the pulley made of? (If it is OEM Ford, you may or may not be successful welding a steel nut to the center of it)
(Ford OEM alternator pulleys are significantly lighter in weight than all of the aftermarket pulleys that I've ever handled.)
How do you know that your pulley is Ford OEM?
If you posted photos of your predicament, others may see something that might otherwise seem normal, or go unnoticed.
In my photo above, the pulley I am mounting is a black Ford OEM upper alternator ratio pulley. I know this because I have had custody of my 2000 model year truck since calendar year 2000.
The alternator shaft in the photo above is that of a genuine Prestolite Leece Neville 230 amp alternator that was built in USA at the Leece Neville alternator plant in upstate New York, about 9 years ago.
Nowadays, there are a lot of big black lookalike "230 amp" alternators made in you know where, so it is difficult to say whether you are a victim of cost cutting corner cutting, and have a substandard rotor shaft... or if you actually have an aftermarket pulley that was recovered from a Motorcraft alternator that had been previously remaned.... or if your currently chosen pulley tightening method is not as reliable or successful as the method recommended by Prestolite Leece Neville, which is illustrated in my photos above.
I've never had a pulley walking issue using the pulley tightening method that the manufacturer recommended.
Just a little Backstory: I bought this same alternator for my bosses flatbed 7.3 truck and it worked fine. So I bought it for my truck. I had a part store stock size alternator on my truck from before I bought my truck. (I know 3 of the previous owners) So the alternator came from O'Reilly's. I pulled the pulley and swapped it to my new alternator. The pulley was slipping and lights were dim and charger volt meter in the dash showed poor voltage that engine RPM directly related to. Went from 11.8V at idle to 14.2 at 850 RPM or something. Not long after I saw my alternator smoking. Turned off the truck and checked it. Pulley came into contact with the alternator face and slipped on the shaft so bad it ruined the shaft and I believe the pulley as well but I can't quite remember the severity of it or which was damaged worse.
Now, the kit came with a grey plastic bushing that I figured can't in any way be for behind the pulley because it was so thin and plastic. But I tried that on my bosses alter
So, I pulled the alternator from the parts truck I had and tried it on a replacement alternator after the face got damaged on the other one. Works way better but still can see signs of the slipping in the volt meter charger doodad.
Included with the alternator was a lock washer for under the nut. I used it behind the pulley at the time as a shim to stop the pulley from contacting the face of my new alternator. It left a perfect amount of clearance as it should be. However now there isn't one under the nut. This is the main reason I feel I need to put a lock washer under the nut before I try anything else. I don't know how much it will or won't help but I feel it is worth a shot as a lock washer was included originally.
If I can't get the pulley to stay spinning correctly I will buy a mechman like I just got in to put on my bosses truck after his alternator started slipping just like mine is. He wanted the 320 amp version. Going to be awesome.
On a side note, the reason my boss needs the bigger alternator. We converted to full battery lawn maintenance equipment which is why he needs the bigger alternator. All battery but the mowers. I wired up a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter in his enclosed trailer and we have 3 550w speed chargers for the commercial Husqvarna weed eaters, blowers, edger, pole saw, and hedge trimmers. I wired a 1/0 charging lead and ground with a anderson connector to a flush mount plug on the truck leading to the driver side battery with extra leads from it to the alternator and a big ol fuse. Battery is the best thing that ever happened for weed eaters. I can't even tell you in a text how much better they are for maintenance. Not for weed eating a pond But maintenance is probably realistically 70% easier. So light, quiet, no vibration, and no fatigue. Truly is awesome.
Now, the kit came with a grey plastic bushing that I figured can't in any way be for behind the pulley because it was so thin and plastic. But I tried that on my bosses black part store alternator when I first Installed it and the bushing wash crushed before proper torque was reached as I expected. Still no idea what that bushing could be for. Maybe it's supposed to go between the pulley and shaft? Surely not. Right?
I did get my alternator for free and if I can make it work it would save me 550$ on the mechman. Thanks for all the help y'all!
Replacing the alternator on a 7.3 ia about as quick and easy as there is, might take longer to change a tire ( more bolts). Alternators are a consumable item, they don't last forever, why not just get the cheap one with the lifetime warranty ?
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