Alternator upgrade

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IL duster

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While driving home yesterday my alternator took a dump. I was wondering if a newer style alternator, denso I think, would fit on my car, its a 360 engine with edelbrock heads. I have the march serpentine belt conversion for my car. I didn't know if the denso's come in serpentine from the parts house. If it did I would just run that pulley instead of transferring my march pulley to it, its kind of a pain to do. i know my pulley looks better but for ease of replacement it would be great to just leave the pulley on from the parts house. I have the march alternator brackets too, I didn't know if that would be a problem fitting or not. Right now I am running a 5 rib serp belt, didn't know if that was what the denso's are or not, i would need to keep the 5 rib belt. Any info would be great, also how it hooks up if wiring is different would be a big help too. Or is it just easier to get another replacement alternator like the one I have and press the pulley that i have on the new alternator. Thanks for your help!

Dan
 
There might be a 5rib out there. I'm a fan of junkyards of course but if someone can't give you a p/n for one, you'll be running the parts guy around pretty well. I'd think if you called for like a 95 5.9 Ram that should be a serpentine denso. The wiring is like stock, however. If you have the amp gauge and factory wiring, throwing a big alternator on there is playing with fire. Amp bypass and thick gauge wire to the starter relay comes highly recommended.

100_1343.jpg
 
The only problem with the Denso swap is the regulator is built into the PCM on them. I don't know what it would take to make an external one work. I know you mentioned not using your March pulley but even if you wanted to it wouldn't work cause the Denso pulley is bolted on like a GM's Delco alt. The mounting brackets are different also so your March brackets won't work. I thought about doing a denso swap on my Cuda too awhile back but when I ran into these problems I gave up cause I have the March system on mine also. I just changed mine over to the newer dual field system with a 60 amp alt. Works real good now.
 
fishy68 said:
The only problem with the Denso swap is the regulator is built into the PCM on them. I don't know what it would take to make an external one work. I know you mentioned not using your March pulley but even if you wanted to it wouldn't work cause the Denso pulley is bolted on like a GM's Delco alt. The mounting brackets are different also so your March brackets won't work. I thought about doing a denso swap on my Cuda too awhile back but when I ran into these problems I gave up cause I have the March system on mine also. I just changed mine over to the newer dual field system with a 60 amp alt. Works real good now.
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Just my 2cents.

I'm using a factory external voltage regulator. and factory brackets. Nothing was modified.
 
I had my original 60 amp alternator rebuilt by a local shop and they changed something inside and now it kicks out 75 amps. Works great. never discharges.

don
 
GoodysGotaCuda said:
Just my 2cents.

I'm using a factory external voltage regulator. and factory brackets. Nothing was modified.
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Good to hear the factory regulator worked on yours Mike. There must be different Denso alternators though. I picked up one off of E-bay that was supposed to be from a 89 Dakota 3.9 and it had 3 connections in addition to the main 10 ga. battery connection. Not sure what the 3rd was for but it didn't look like a ground. I don't doubt the factory brackets fit because they're thin. The March brackets may fit and they may not because they're quite a bit thicker than the factory brackets are. That's the reason I said I didn't think they would fit.
 
There are TONS of different denso alternators out there. Do you have a picutre of the march pulley setup? Since i have stock brackets...if the march setup fits a stock alternator, i dont see why it wouldnt work with a denso like mine (off a 90 ramcharger)
 
I had my stock, externally regulated 60 amp rebuilt into a 100 amp unit locally. Well worth the money. I dropped it off in the morning and picked it up in the afternoon.

Downside is that it can't be run through the stock amp gauge. It charges more at 1100 rpms than the gauge can handle, and it'll burn up (ask me how I know).

I don't even run the charging wire to the starter relay. I installed a common buss bar on the fenderwell, and run all my hot power wires to it. It is also a more accurate voltage reading for the regulator, with less than .1v loss between the common bar and the battery (in the trunk).
 
Yeah Mike I know there are literally hundreds of Denso alternators out there used on different vehicles. I meant Denso's used on Dodge LA V8's and V6's. There really aren't that many. I know cause I checked. From when they started using them in the late 80's to date the ones used on the la style magnums I came up with are less than a dozen. Apparently the one I got being a early model was different in it's mounting though. I don't have March brackets like I said so I can't provide a pix. I only have the pulley's.

GoodysGotaCuda said:
There are TONS of different denso alternators out there. Do you have a picutre of the march pulley setup? Since i have stock brackets...if the march setup fits a stock alternator, i dont see why it wouldnt work with a denso like mine (off a 90 ramcharger)
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I went to the local Advance auto parts store,
and bought a 60 amp alt, for my Valiant.

Lights are much brighter, and I am using the stock wiring, etc.

Part Number: P7001
Reman; with 2 Groove Pulley; 60 Amps;

Our Price: $39.88
Core Charge: $15.00
 
what is the max alternator discharge and still use your factory gaugein the dash? what would be the limit or safe amp?
 
As for the max amount of current your amp gauge or more importantly the firewall connection can handle, that depends entirely on the quality of the connection. As these connections age and corrode, they develop internal resistance. The more current you try to stuff through the resistance in the connection, the hotter it gets. the more it overheats the more the resistance goes up, and pretty soon the whole shebang degrades to the point the battery wont chanrge and you wind up on the side of the road with a dead battery and a melted down bulkhead connector (if you are lucky and the car doesn't catch fire).

Easy solution is to run an 8 or 10 AWG wire from the alternator directly to the battery cable connection on the starter relay. Now the entire charging load goes directly to the battery bypassing the bulkhead connector. The amp gauge will only show the amount of current the primary circuit draws. A central binding post for all DC connections like superdart suggested works well with a remote battery setup, and would be the ultimate solution.
 
To add to Chief's post.

I made the mistake of upgrading the alternator in my car to that 100amp model and had not yet updated the wiring. I promptly burned up the amp guage the first time I started the car due to the increase current. I now have the gauge bypassed completely with the new wiring.
 
I upgraded to a Bosch alternator from a '89 Ramcharger. I did have to make a custom lower bracket, but it turned out pretty nice. As has already been mentioned here I upgraded the charging wire to 6 ga, everything ties to a common post, dumped the ammeter entirely and am running a voltmeter.

Also, don't run your electronic voltage sensor wire to the always hot common post or the regulator will send voltage to the field coil of the alt and drain your battery quick. It must be connected to a fused switched hot connection, preferbly under the dash where voltage is the lowest.
 
ramhemi said:
http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

I found this site while researching Alternators.I heard of guys putting on the 1990 throw 1992 Dodge Ram Gas Denso Alternators.The Amp Gauge and wiring will not live with a 90 amp Alternator.The second diagram looks like the way to go to keep from burning the car down.Has any of you put this Alt on?What mods do you need?
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http://goodysgotacuda.com/DensoUpgrade.html

Have a voltmeter, no amp gauge and 6ga wire directly from the alt to the battery
 
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