Alternator upgrade, first starting of the year

[DougHolverson]

I updated the Champ to a hand-me-down Pinto alternator. It took a homemade bracket, an extra wire, and splicing in a Ford regulator pigtail. Then I started old Stude up for the first time this year. My upgrade worked right off the bat!

I sort of wish that Grandpa Skow was still around to show me how to adjust the regulator on the previous generator. He probably could have done it with a tweak of a screwdriver. He ran the Standard station in Moorhead, Iowa from 1931 to 1969 and had an Allis-Chalmers dealership from circa '48 until the end of both of them. I looked up adjustment in the shop manual and was intimidated by the 57 steps and the need for esoteric things like 1/4ohm resistors. Which is why the alternator conversion came sooner instead of later.

[studeclunker]

Back when I had a job, the local mechanic installed a 100amp alternator (came out of my Caddie) into my Champ. He put some kind of diode in the wiring to "excite" the system so that the Alternator would work. It has done so beautifully for over ten years. Kinda wish I knew what he did as I now have several vehicles I would like to convert. However, since one of them is going to get a whole new front (at least... mice) harness, that one shouldn't be a problem.