Re: 470 Alternator Sizing
Sorry I did not answer all of your questions in my first response, particularly about what to do with the old system.<br /><br />Although it was suggested, I did not remove the old system because I was apprehensive about the conversion. Hind sight tells me that I could have removed all the old stuff but I did not.<br /><br />I left the stator assembly in place, along with the magnets inside the flywheel (note there are two types of flywheel) the "old" style put on engine serial numbers 4625580 through 5520114, and the new style put on engine serial numbers 5520115 and above. My apprehension came about from the fact that I had the new style flywheel which tends to have 3 threaded holes which may not be properly spaced, requiring a gauge to center the new pulley which then must be pinned in place by drilling a hole into the flywheel and driving a pin in place (not a big deal but I wasn't sure at the time.<br /><br />I also left the water cooled regulator in place and the leads from the stator. I did test the regulator output posts to see if there was output - none, so I left the stuff in place temporarily with the stator leads fastened to the regulaor. This spring I will cut back the leads removing them from the regulator, and/ or remove the stator completely, although that's tediuos now that the whole system's converted and getting the flywheel off could be a pain in the neck. I wll also remove the regulator and replace the cooling line with one piece of heater hose.<br /><br />One final item, is the circuit breaker that is recommended be placed at the starter on the solenoid. It's about $20 and is not included with the conversion kit. This a small, but smart addition to reduce the chance of arcing, spark and fire. You'll be tempted to ignore this part because you don't find out it's not in the kit until you reach the step in the process, unless you read the entire instruction set beforehand, (like all of us usually do, right? Be very careful when installing the breaker on the solenoid, it's easy to snap off a part of the solenoid when tightening or loosening the cable connections because those threaded bolts on the solenoid go into a plastic housing that is not very strong, TRUST ME ON THIS ONE, I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE. Where two nuts are used to tighten a connector in place, be sure to use two wrenches to take torque on either side of the connector/washer....So all said and done, you can remove all the old system or not, it's probably best to remove what's easy and does not cause problems with the conversion. The part that's problematic to do after the conversion's complete is to go back and remove the stator and magnets inside the flywheel.
