gaogre
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- Douglasville, GA
Hi. This is my first forum and my first post.
I have a 1984 M1009 that was used by the US Forestry Service in Hot Springs, AR; it's all white outside with a black Silverado interior. It already was converted to 12 volts and had air conditioning installed.
I got it several years ago and intended to fix it up a little at the time, and not drive it much, as my EOTWAWKI vehicle. I started with the starter, which was already giving trouble, replaced / upgraded it with a geared one, and upgrading the cable for it and the battery to 2 gauge. I decided to wait on the alternator because it wasn't totally gone yet.
Fast forward to now. My son is a high school senior, Commander of his MCJROTC unit, and has been nominated to the Naval Academy. So he is using it as an almost daily driver now. The positive post on the alternator came loose inside of the case and it started shooting sparks whenever any pressure was applied to the cable connecting to it. So if I was going to have to replace it, I was going to upgrade it and the cables, too.
I looked for help on this site and others for upgrading, but didn't find much. I looked at several high output alternator sites, Quick Start, Mechman, and PowerBastards. I really liked the higher tech Mechman, but PB seemed to have the highest output at the low RPM (diesel) idle, so I went with them (~$350). On the web site it says: "Direct Fit | Bolt-On | Plug & Play", THIS IS A LIE!
The original alternator is a Delco 10SI style case, 100 amps output and isolated ground, if original military. The isolated ground is necessary for the 24 volt setup, driver side alternator, which is not grounded through the alternator chassis, it has a positive and negative post. If you haven't converted to 12 volts, this won't work and you have to use the military alternators! The PB alternator is a 220 amp, smaller case Delco 27SI (type 100), and will not fit without an adapter bracket. I almost sent it back. Nothing was said about an adapter being needed and nothing is on the site. I just happened to see adapter brackets on the Quick Start site and the A290 seemed to be what I needed so I ordered it (~$45). When it arrived, it fit the alternator (it comes with a bolt and hardware for this), but just barely wouldn't fit the original vehicle bracket, it was cocked a little. A "T" bracket with the top of the "T" a cylinder for the mounting bolt to go through with the original alternator tabs on either side of this cylinder, then into the engine. The A290 had smaller holes for the bolts on the pulley side, about 3/8", and larger holes on the other end, larger than 1/2". I enlarged the 3/8" hole for the original bolt to 1/2" to get it to work. I had to get a new bolt for the adjusting tab of the new alternator (13mm head), as the old alternator adjusting bolt was standard size and bigger. I used another 13mm head bolt on the back of the case as an extra ground connection. I upgraded the cable to 2 gauge also and installed a 250 amp 12 volt circuit breaker on the positive cable before it gets to the buss bar, just in case a catastrophic failure of the alternator ever tried to drain the battery; don't want a fire. It is a breaker like they use for high amp car stereo projects, NewEgg has them for ~$10 (9SIA76H2GT2367). I'm not using any of the original alternator cables, just taped them off. The alternator belt had seemed almost too long with the original alternator (at the far end of adjustment), with the new alternator it seemed almost too short (at the near end of adjustment). But it works!
The main reason that I wanted more amperage is that I mounted a 3000 watt inverter from Harbor Freight where the front battery used to be, using original mounting frame and wired it with a disconnect switch and 2 gauge cables. I wanted an alternator that would have a chance of keeping the battery from draining during use. Haven't had much time to play with this yet though, but it does work.
I have a 1984 M1009 that was used by the US Forestry Service in Hot Springs, AR; it's all white outside with a black Silverado interior. It already was converted to 12 volts and had air conditioning installed.
I got it several years ago and intended to fix it up a little at the time, and not drive it much, as my EOTWAWKI vehicle. I started with the starter, which was already giving trouble, replaced / upgraded it with a geared one, and upgrading the cable for it and the battery to 2 gauge. I decided to wait on the alternator because it wasn't totally gone yet.
Fast forward to now. My son is a high school senior, Commander of his MCJROTC unit, and has been nominated to the Naval Academy. So he is using it as an almost daily driver now. The positive post on the alternator came loose inside of the case and it started shooting sparks whenever any pressure was applied to the cable connecting to it. So if I was going to have to replace it, I was going to upgrade it and the cables, too.
I looked for help on this site and others for upgrading, but didn't find much. I looked at several high output alternator sites, Quick Start, Mechman, and PowerBastards. I really liked the higher tech Mechman, but PB seemed to have the highest output at the low RPM (diesel) idle, so I went with them (~$350). On the web site it says: "Direct Fit | Bolt-On | Plug & Play", THIS IS A LIE!
The original alternator is a Delco 10SI style case, 100 amps output and isolated ground, if original military. The isolated ground is necessary for the 24 volt setup, driver side alternator, which is not grounded through the alternator chassis, it has a positive and negative post. If you haven't converted to 12 volts, this won't work and you have to use the military alternators! The PB alternator is a 220 amp, smaller case Delco 27SI (type 100), and will not fit without an adapter bracket. I almost sent it back. Nothing was said about an adapter being needed and nothing is on the site. I just happened to see adapter brackets on the Quick Start site and the A290 seemed to be what I needed so I ordered it (~$45). When it arrived, it fit the alternator (it comes with a bolt and hardware for this), but just barely wouldn't fit the original vehicle bracket, it was cocked a little. A "T" bracket with the top of the "T" a cylinder for the mounting bolt to go through with the original alternator tabs on either side of this cylinder, then into the engine. The A290 had smaller holes for the bolts on the pulley side, about 3/8", and larger holes on the other end, larger than 1/2". I enlarged the 3/8" hole for the original bolt to 1/2" to get it to work. I had to get a new bolt for the adjusting tab of the new alternator (13mm head), as the old alternator adjusting bolt was standard size and bigger. I used another 13mm head bolt on the back of the case as an extra ground connection. I upgraded the cable to 2 gauge also and installed a 250 amp 12 volt circuit breaker on the positive cable before it gets to the buss bar, just in case a catastrophic failure of the alternator ever tried to drain the battery; don't want a fire. It is a breaker like they use for high amp car stereo projects, NewEgg has them for ~$10 (9SIA76H2GT2367). I'm not using any of the original alternator cables, just taped them off. The alternator belt had seemed almost too long with the original alternator (at the far end of adjustment), with the new alternator it seemed almost too short (at the near end of adjustment). But it works!
The main reason that I wanted more amperage is that I mounted a 3000 watt inverter from Harbor Freight where the front battery used to be, using original mounting frame and wired it with a disconnect switch and 2 gauge cables. I wanted an alternator that would have a chance of keeping the battery from draining during use. Haven't had much time to play with this yet though, but it does work.
