While the alternator on the driveshaft is better than nothing, it will do very little at anything but highway speeds, and will be utterly useless when idling or inching through traffic of course. Since this is likely going to be a cruiser, I don’t think this is the ideal setup. I’d strongly urge you to find a way to drive the alternator from the crankshaft if at all possible. Sometimes function must take precedence over form.
I hate to suggest it…but maybe there is a kit or a way to drive it off the flywheel? I cringe at the thought but he’s going thru a lot to hide that alternator… Maybe?
hey if you want to get real cute…you can adapt a motorcycle stator to do the job… It will bolt onto the lower engine pulley/damper… then the stator will go round it…problem solved… Easier said than done but prob solved… You could even cut up a stator…and turn the flywheel into a generator… that’d be hard…but doable…
I like the main pulley/damper stator idea meself…it would work too…nobody’d be the wiser.
OR…drive an alternator off the main pulley damper…like IN LINE with it… put the alt drive pulley inside the damper…You could use a small cycle style alternator…like off of a Honda Gold wing or a BMW…this would also work bit weird lookin but it’d work… I still like the damper/stator idea…thats clean Maybe I should invent this?
I’d recommend to connect a volt-meter directly to the starter +12 and a ground either on the starter or nearby. Crank the engine. Use some long leads so you can see the meter while you crank the engine. It should read 13V or a little more without cranking. When you crank it the voltage will drop. Does it read at least 10 volts with the engine cranking? If it is less than that, you have some kind of wiring problem to resolve. Somewhere along the way a resistance is dropping the voltage too much. It could be in the long wire from the trunk, or it could be in the ground wiring. The starter is connected to the engine, so it used the engine ground. The engine has to have a good connection to the chassis, as the chassis is part of the ground wiring.
If you are getting more than 10 volts directly at the starter (usually it is about 11 to 11.5 volts if the battery is new), then you have some problem with the starter relay, or the starter itself.
We are WAY past that stage George… He got it working a while back using our advice…he could have used yours as well bec you are exactly correct sir…we are just rambling on about his alternator setup at this point…
got to admit that i’m caving and installing a pulley system for the alternator. this week a friend and fellow Ford-tuner offered to donate a chrome alternator to my build. i hate to hide it! i purchased a single groove crank racing pulley and can get a short belt to run the alternator. that ought to do it!!