I'm not so much concerned with keeping it stock, so much as keeping it vintage-looking. Alternators are ugly, if you ask me, and a well-maintained generator does the job just fine.

 

My feelings are (for what they are worth) our trucks need two things, an alternator and disc brakes. I never had any faith in drum brakes after being in a car as a kid that the brakes failed on coming down off a mountain. There is just too much demand on charging systems these days with all the electronic gadgets.
Here is a link to an alternator inside a generator housing.

http://powermastermotorsports.com/powergen.html

Rod 51F1

 

The only thing I've added to my truck is a CD player, so the generator is fine. Drum brakes are fine for the driving I do too. I live on the flat side of Long Island. A well-maintained drum brake system is perfectly adequate.

Tomorrow I start my new job at Autozone ... if they carry generator brushes, I'll see if I can get an employee discount on them.

 

I my opinion, any vehical has the potential to be a good one, if properly taken care of.
I will agree that a brake system without a booster is harder to stop, but if you maintain the brake system and drive right you should have no problems with the brakes.
The gen is all what you decide to do to your pick up. If you don't want to add a bunch of electronic stuff, the gen should also work fine.

 

Actually, the CD player is likely to get toasted by the generator. When the cut-out relay opens and closes, and the voltage and current regulating relays open/close, it sends a voltage spike into the system (I've heard it can be 250 volts?). Electronic ignitions, and audio electronics, don't like that at all. Many CD players have a noise filter in them but it is tuned to eliminate low-frequency hum from an alternator, not a spike. If you do a web search, you'll find some add-ons (capacitors, zeners, and inductors) that will protect your electronics.

 

I still run a generator, with a cd player and airconditioning for the past 5 years and no problems..I may go to an alternator someday, I carry an extra set of brushes and springs with me because I travel on long distant trips, last time a generator gave up on me I was over 100 miles from home and made it on just the battery, running nothing but the ignition

 

Hiball, do new/rebuilt generators make any noise?

Installed a rebuilt generator and nos regulator today. It works excellent voltages are spot on but it has a kind of hiss that is noticeable at idle. It sure seems to me it's the brushes sliding on armature.

The old generator armature was turned down to nothing. The new generator, looks like a first class rebuild inside with fresh field coils, bearings, brushes, etc. It's not annoying but first I ever heard anything from a generator.

 

Mine doesn't.

 

Is it brand new/rebuilt , though? The old one didn't make any noise either, but it was wore out, too. The new one has a different spring arrangement on the brushes than I've seen, a mainspring type that are pretty stout.

 

Brushes are flat-faced when new, takes a while to wear to match the armature.

 

I wondered about that. They are installed/replaced flat and allowed to wear in, then? These had some bevel but not much. They are plug n' play? About how long did a set of brushes last back in the day?

Here's my "new" Sun ammeter/voltmeter, will need some restoration inside but should work well on the old iron and testing generator output for current and voltage: