Hi all,

I recently had my alternator die on me. I then bought a new lucas-style from convertable mini man (Tony), and with my lack of experience promptly blew it up by wiring it in wrong.

Anyway, I managed to fix the old one, but I'm getting quite a high voltage from it - 14.55V to be exact across the battery terminals at and above 2800 rpm. Is this too much? I was thinking the regulator has blown, since the method used to fix this alternator was to pull the whole thing apart, test everything and put it back together. As far as I know, you can't really test an internal regulator without specialist equpment. The alternator's a Lucas 16acr

On a side note, does anyone know how to get those chinese lucas-style alternators apart? It seems that either the back is bearing pressed on, or I need to take off the pulley and fan, and it's not easy. I've already bent the allen key.

Thanks in advance.

15V from an alternator is too high, but 14.5V is fine. Your battery will output 13V or so, so the alternator needs to deliver more than that in order to charge it.

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

It could also be that your battery is also on the way out.....

I'm sure the battery is fine, it's new.

OK, thanks for your reply. BTW, I've got the other alternator apart, and need to fix the solid state regulator, it seems.