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MG MGB Technical - Saturn Alternator Conversion

Does anyone have a copy of the Saturn alternator conversion instructions that were once posted on the "onefastmgb" site? All of the archived posts point to this link and it has been off line for a long time. I am mainly interested in the "clocking" process..

David Terhune

David
Try this site it might help
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fishertr/alternator.html

Kent
DK McNeill

I have seen that site, it does not cover the clocking process..thanks.
David Terhune

I bought mine from mgccars.com and it was already clocked with the correct pulley.
Jim Lema

David -

To clock the alternator, with the alternator shaft end up, remove the three bolts that hold the front and back end plates. Holding the body of the alternator, rotate (do not remove) the front plate until the mounting ears are as shown in the document referenced above and then replace the three bolts. The bolts should be in alignment when the mounting ears are correct.

Jan
Janson Hurd

David,

I just responded to this question on the MGA thread. BTW, the extra 10 gauge wire referenced in the article above is NOT precautionary. The whole point of using this alternator is to get more current back into the system. That purpose is negated unless the extra wire is added.

Also, the rear spacer does not need to be ground down - it can be easily driven back with a light hammer.

FWIW,
Allen
Allen Bachelder

OnefastMGB has gone away, and the Internet Archive does not have much of his site stored either. A shame, as someone should have picked it up and reposted on the web. However, Tom Fisher's site (above) is reasonably informative. I am posting two photos I managed to salvage from OnefastMGB's archived info.

Bob Muenchausen

And this one:

Bob Muenchausen

I have a printed copy of that web page. I'll make a scan of it and send it to Bob M. and he can post it on his website if he wishes.
Ed Emery

Bob,
I just found an early version of Darryl's alternator conversion page saved to my hard drive. Let me know if you'd like me to send over the text and pics.

As you may remember, I followed Darryl's instructions and have been running the Saturn conversion for almost 3 years and +/- 25K miles without issue.

Tom
ausserdog * at * hotmail * dot * com
Tom Sotomayor

Tom & Ed:
Please do send them to bobmunch64 at yahoo dot com If I can find space on my site I will see if I can post something similar to his page without plagiarizing it too much.

I received an email from Allen which raises some questions about the parallel line up of the pulleys after the "clocking of the housing" and perhaps, just perhaps, that may be a reason for Darryl to have pulled his page. There are other equally or more sensible reasons it disappeared as well, but as I told Allen, I am not aware of anyone having complained about this problem, altho it could be true.

I am not a clearing house for alternator conversions (altho I sometimes wonder) and simply posted his old link as a convenience for those who might want to go that route. Therefore, I never received much comment about his conversion. As mentioned before, Tom Fisher does have a site on this topic and perhaps an email to him might be in order to find out if he has heard any negative comments on this conversion. I suppose it is possible that folks who did do it may not be aware of the problem Allen mentioned but will be in time.

The Ford Fiesta Bosch conversion that I do outline on my site, http://www.cibolas7.net/17901.html , has not presented any problems over the 9 yrs that I have had mine in place and I have yet to have anyone write me saying that they have.
Bob Muenchausen

Thanks everyone for the great response. I have a new unit that I have not touched yet..has this conversion not been successful for everyone? I have the Fiesta/Bosch conversion on my MGB but have had to replace it a couple of times in 4 years, glad it has a lifetime warranty. I was looking for something that the local Autozone might have in stock in case it quits during a road trip. The Fiesta unit is a next day delivery. I am assuming the local store could swap the pulley for me and rotate the housing.
David Terhune

To clarify Bob's mention of my experience with pulley alignment, I'll say that in my set-up with A/C, I can see a slight misalignment and have wondered about the long-term implications. But, having said that, I've run the car about 25,000 miles in the past three years with no problems due to the perceived misalignment. I'm not absolutely sure that the misalignment is due to the alternator brackets.

FWIW,
Allen
Allen Bachelder

Bob,
I'll send you what I have shortly, including the additional comments I sent to Darryl. Since my comments and email were included on his site, people would occassionaly confuse me with Darryl and send me emails asking questions about "my" site. Never heard anything bad about the conversions, only the odd compliment.

Funny, I've found that the Saturn conversion lines up BETTER than the Lucas ever did. Probably just part / assembly tolerances for each setup.

Obviously, you want the belt lined up the best you can. However, if it's not "shedding" rubber bits (black dust) it's lined up well enough.

I ran mine for about a year just as Darryl had shown on his page. Then went the Moss SC route and have run the serpentine setup since then. Had to modify the Moss pulley since I no longer had the Saturn one. Members from our local club have also changed to the Saturn alternator on they're SC'd B with no issues that I'm aware of and they clock up more annual mileage than I do. Between us we've probably racked up 60K+ miles in the last 3 years.

Tom
Tom Sotomayor

Bob M.:

Thanks for the kudos about my site. In terms of negative comments, I haven't heard any. However, I would say that if I were doing it all over again I would go the route that Jim Lema (above) did and buy one direct from mgccars

http://mgccars.com/96_amp_alternator_upgrade.htm

This really does look completely painless AND it is also very cost effective! I spent a lot more on mine.
Tom Fisher

It looks like the collective wisdom would attribute my slight misalignment to something other than my alternator brackets. I have wondered that when you rotate the front cover/bracket on the Saturn alternator, if you weren't trying to align two holes that were not intended to line up, but since nobody else has experienced that, I will presume that the problem lies in my piggy-back mounting of the alternator on the A/C compressor. At worst, it's not the highest-priority on my MG project list. No sign of rubber dust or damage to the belt.

Cheers,
Allen
Allen Bachelder

Bob,
You have mail.
Tom Sotomayor

Tom, Did I get your email?? I did get one from Ed Emery, but so far, I haven't gotten yours. I will have to check my files at yahoo. Sometimes it throws perfectly good emails into the junk folder simply because it does not recognize the address. Sorry for the delay, Tom.
Bob Muenchausen

Tom: Got it! Thanks for the heads up!
John: Apologies for calling you Ed.
Bob Muenchausen

Bob,
Glad you got it. I haven't been checking in here as regularly as usual since I've been bouncing in and out of the "sick ward" (thanks boss).

Let me know if you want photos of the SC setup too, or anything else for that matter.

Tom
Tom Sotomayor

This thread was discussed between 02/03/2008 and 12/03/2008

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