HELP: 1960 Imperial conversion from generator to alternator

Our generator is shot and we're looking to swap it out for an alternator. Does anyone make brackets to do this? The generator is currently mounted off the exhaust manifold.

Any help would be _greatly_ appreciated!

Reply to
Mark
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Since the mid 90's, by recommendation of the SAE, in the sutomotive world (U.S. anyway) alternators are now officially called generators. So your conversion won't accomplish anything - you'd still only have a generator. :)

Sorry - I thought it would be funny to say that. But the SAE's directive is no joke - the manufacturers (most of them anyway) are now calling what you and I call an alternator a generator.

I hope you find a source for bracket and alternator to use - if I had a serious answer, I'd give it to you.

Hopefully someone will have some spedific info., but if not, I did a Google search - maybe these guys can get you pointed in the right direction:

"Certified Auto Electric Inc

225 Northfield Rd Bedford, OH 44146 United States 440-439-1100 fax: 440-439-2163 snipped-for-privacy@sbcglobal.net
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Monday-Friday 8 am to 5 pm EST. Rebuilding electrical parts for all makes and models, ie: generators, starters, alternators. Generator to alternator conversions, 6-volt, 8-volt, 12-volt and 24-volt. Chrome units available."

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Don't mean to disagree, but I believe that the O.P. is correct. Chrysler did not switch from generators to alternators until 1961, so his 1960 Imperial probably does have a generator. I would think that an alternator and mounting hardware from a later Chrysler vehicle with the same engine would fit. Just make sure that it does not use the electronic regulator.

The electronic regulator and the alternator that goes with it has to be a matched set. I think that electronic setup began use for 1969.

Daniel Stern would have all the answers to this, but I don't believe that he frequents this N.G. anymore.

-KM

Reply to
kmath50

What engine (413, I assume)? If so, then you might be able to find everything you need in a junkyard if you can find a '61 or later

413-powered Mopar. To be honest, I could swear that I remembered 1960 as being the first year for alternators, but maybe it was 61. At any rate, any 413 or 440-powered Mopar (the external dimensions of those engines are the same) should be able to provide you with a bracket set.
Reply to
Steve

The mechanical regulator for an alternator is also different than the mechanical regulator for a generator, so the OP might as well go whole-hog and get an electronic regulator as well. Electronic replacement regulators are available for the pre-1970 "one wire" alternators that originally had mechanical regulators, and of course the

70-up alternators always had electronic regulators. The mounting brackets for both generations of alternator are the same, only 1 wire is different between the electronic and pre-electronic types.
Reply to
Steve

Bob Hoffmeister's IMPERIAL HEAVEN Salvage Yard Box 23 Route 2 St. Edwards, NE

68660 402-678-2635

You can find everything you want to know and more about your Imperial at

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Also have a 700 member mailing list with lots of folks that have cars from our era (I have a '59)

Steve B.

Reply to
Steve B.

You misunderstood what I was saying, but I can see how you might have read it like you did.

My first paragraph was tongue-in-cheek - an attempt at a joke. I know he has what you and I call a generator. The joke was that since what you and I call an alternator is now officially called a generator, then if he switched to what we call an alternator, he'd still only have - by the new terminology - a generator. Truly the two are different devices, but if they are both called generators, doesn't that make them the same? (No - and that's the joke - maybe not a very good joke, but a joke nonetheless.) :) I wonder if anybody got it.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

yeah, i got it... lol

Reply to
Nza

You're right. I still hear lots of people continue to call them (alternators) generators. Just like coil packs are still called distributors, even though they are very different compared to the device that they replaced. I have even heard a throttle body referred to as a carburator.

-KM

Reply to
kmath50

And valve lash adjusters, out of habit are often incorrectly called valve lifters.

Regarding alternators being called generators, my point there was that they are now officially called generators per SAE direction. And technically there is nothing wrong with calling them that. After all - they do generate, and in that regard are no less (nor no more) generators than what you and I used to call generators (as distinguished from the term "alternator").

If you think about it, if a coil pack does direct (distribute) electrical energy to the correct plug at the correct time, why would it be incorrect to call it a "distributor"? An electronic distributor (no moving parts) is no less a distributor, in the basic semantic sense, than the traditional (rotating mechanical) distributor.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

There's a big difference: Alternator is a technically correct term for the device, even if the standard terminology is less specific. An alternator is a sub-class of generator that produces electricity by rectifing AC current to DC. A dynamo is also a gnerator, but of a fundamentally different type. "Alternator" is to "genarator" as "coupe" is to "car."

In contrast, calling a throttle body a carb or a coil pack a distributor is just..... wrong.

Reply to
Steve

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