My old generator had quite a bit of resistance to turning, while the alt. was very easy to turn. Needless to say, i could feel the increase in horsepower, because the load on the engine is now less.
The kits come with an alternator (obviously), an alternator stand, an alternator strap and sheetmetal backing plates. The stand requires a seperate oil filler tube, as the stock one is very difficult to remove and reuse. Get one with a fitting to hook up a breather tube for crankcase ventalating. You might also need a smaller fan belt, i did. The kit costs $130, you can't page through a Hot VW's without seeing them advertised. ; )
Installation
It's really straight forward, even though it is fairly involved. The most difficult part is removing the BIG nut that holds the fan on the back of the generator.
It's a 36 mm nut, the same size as the rear wheel hub nuts. It requires a 36mm socket, the funky 36mm tool that you hit with a sledge hammer won't work.
Try to wrap an old towel around the fan and have one foot on it to keep it from turning while you loosen the nut. Same thing goes for tightening it on the alternator. Try to keep track of how things fit so to put them
on the alternator in the proper sequence.
Wiring
The alternator has an internal voltage regulator. This means that you can hook the B+ lead directly to the battery. It has another lead for a direct hook-up to the generator warning light.
I wanted to take full advantage
of the 55 amps so I wired up another 8 gauge wire from the B+ terminal to the battery. This lets the energy flow more efficently.
A big 8 gauge wire distrubution block would probably be benificial in the space under the back seat. With two wires coming from the alt., one or more going to the battery, one going to the stock fuse box and however many wires
you have going to amplifiers and aux. light relays, splicing can get a little tedious.
The whole thing took me about three hours to install, I had to take out the carb and intake manifold to get to some of the bolts on the generator backing plate. The install would be a snap if you had dual carbs...
Update: my alternator crapped out. little dash light started glowing faintly a couple months ago, got progressively brighter
and soon enough, i couldn't drive at night cause it wasn't charging enough to use my headlights. couple days later i couldn't even drive in the day time.
so it was off to Portland and my favorite vw accessory store. they gave me a brand new, not rebuilt alternator for free, i inquired about a bigger amp alt.
but they said they stopped carrying them cause they burned out so frequently (!). so i'm still going with the nice reliable 55 amp alt.
i picked up an irs box-in beef up kit
and a few other trinkets too. the drive was certainly eventful cause it was 45 degrees and i have no heaters in my 67. actually i had no brakes too. i was
stopping it parking brake style....
It's really straight forward, even though it is fairly involved. The most difficult part is removing the BIG nut that holds the fan on the back of the generator. It's a 36 mm nut, the same size as the rear wheel hub nuts. It requires a 36mm socket, the funky 36mm tool that you hit with a sledge hammer won't work.
Try to wrap an old towel around the fan and have one foot on it to keep it from turning while you loosen the nut. Same thing goes for tightening it on the alternator. Try to keep track of how things fit so to put them on the alternator in the proper sequence.
Wiring
The alternator has an internal voltage regulator. This means that you can hook the B+ lead directly to the battery. It has another lead for a direct hook-up to the generator warning light.
I wanted to take full advantage
of the 55 amps so I wired up another 8 gauge wire from the B+ terminal to the battery. This lets the energy flow more efficently.
A big 8 gauge wire distrubution block would probably be benificial in the space under the back seat. With two wires coming from the alt., one or more going to the battery, one going to the stock fuse box and however many wires
you have going to amplifiers and aux. light relays, splicing can get a little tedious.
The whole thing took me about three hours to install, I had to take out the carb and intake manifold to get to some of the bolts on the generator backing plate. The install would be a snap if you had dual carbs...
Update: my alternator crapped out. little dash light started glowing faintly a couple months ago, got progressively brighter
and soon enough, i couldn't drive at night cause it wasn't charging enough to use my headlights. couple days later i couldn't even drive in the day time.
so it was off to Portland and my favorite vw accessory store. they gave me a brand new, not rebuilt alternator for free, i inquired about a bigger amp alt.
but they said they stopped carrying them cause they burned out so frequently (!). so i'm still going with the nice reliable 55 amp alt.
i picked up an irs box-in beef up kit
and a few other trinkets too. the drive was certainly eventful cause it was 45 degrees and i have no heaters in my 67. actually i had no brakes too. i was
stopping it parking brake style....
I wanted to take full advantage of the 55 amps so I wired up another 8 gauge wire from the B+ terminal to the battery. This lets the energy flow more efficently.
A big 8 gauge wire distrubution block would probably be benificial in the space under the back seat. With two wires coming from the alt., one or more going to the battery, one going to the stock fuse box and however many wires you have going to amplifiers and aux. light relays, splicing can get a little tedious.
The whole thing took me about three hours to install, I had to take out the carb and intake manifold to get to some of the bolts on the generator backing plate. The install would be a snap if you had dual carbs...
Update: my alternator crapped out. little dash light started glowing faintly a couple months ago, got progressively brighter and soon enough, i couldn't drive at night cause it wasn't charging enough to use my headlights. couple days later i couldn't even drive in the day time. so it was off to Portland and my favorite vw accessory store. they gave me a brand new, not rebuilt alternator for free, i inquired about a bigger amp alt. but they said they stopped carrying them cause they burned out so frequently (!). so i'm still going with the nice reliable 55 amp alt. i picked up an irs box-in beef up kit and a few other trinkets too. the drive was certainly eventful cause it was 45 degrees and i have no heaters in my 67. actually i had no brakes too. i was stopping it parking brake style....