Rewiring Your Alternator or Homebrew High output alternator

[wifi]

I did some searching on the forums and came up with nothing in regards to this discusion. Have done some searching on Google as well only to find that there is not much to the point information.

Does anybody have any information on rewiring their alternator or upgrading it to produce more power. I am talking about taking your alternator adding more rounds of wire, upgrading the brushes etc.....

What all would be involved, how can you do it and where to find part suppliers? I wonder how much more you could get out of your stock alternator by doing this. 350 dollars for a high output alternator is a little too steep for me at the moment but if I could spend 50 dollars to do it myself would be awesome. Maybe its not worth the effort or would decrease the realiability of it....cannot find any type of information.

More coffee.....

['Doc]

Oh boy, are you sure you wanna do that? I can certainly see why you would want to, but are you capable of 'doing' it?
There's an 'alternator' shop here in town. They repair/rewind/fix alternators, generators, motors, etc. I can tell you very quickly that it isn't 'dirt' simple from watching the owner do it. (He's very good at what he does too.) If I absolutely -had- to do it, and if someone watched me do it so that they could correct me when I goofed, I might try it, maybe. But I know my limitations (at least about that sort of thingy), and you definitely wouldn't want me messing with your alternator! It isn't a 5 minute job.
Good luck!
- 'Doc

(I was doing great till you mentioned coffee. Dang!)

[wifi]

Oh boy, are you sure you wanna do that? I can certainly see why you would want to, but are you capable of 'doing' it?
There's an 'alternator' shop here in town. They repair/rewind/fix alternators, generators, motors, etc. I can tell you very quickly that it isn't 'dirt' simple from watching the owner do it. (He's very good at what he does too.) If I absolutely -had- to do it, and if someone watched me do it so that they could correct me when I goofed, I might try it, maybe. But I know my limitations (at least about that sort of thingy), and you definitely wouldn't want me messing with your alternator! It isn't a 5 minute job.
Good luck!
- 'Doc

(I was doing great till you mentioned coffee. Dang!)

It is that intense huh? Hmmm that sucks.I dont know enough about them to know why. Thanks for your response. Well get yourself another cup of coffee

any other comments.....

[ogdoa]

I am far from an electronic genius and I have done about twenty upgrades using the "Iceberg" kits. Its really not that hard and if you installed a radio in your car you probably have all the tools to do it. I ran dual 140 amp units on my old truck and am getting ready to upgrade to dual on my current truck. After I am done I will post the before and after pics. The kits are not cheap but they are alot cheaper then buying them new. A 140 amp quality built alternator will run some big bucks and it cost me less then a hundred to upgrade the one that is in the truck and will cost me about 120 for the second one because of the brackets. I'll run the second one on its own dedicated system with my winches radio equipment and stereo with a pair of deep cycle batteries. It was harder to get my swr to 1.3 then it was to do one of these upgrades. These are bolt on kits and you do not have to mess with the windings. I have read your other posts doc and I think you could probably do this with a blindfold on. Your friend was rebuilding them and testing every point for weaknesses. I worked for a rebuilder for a little while and some of the things they do are amazing but not necessary when you are dealing with a working alternator. If you are trying to upgrade an alternator that is not working I would follow dos reply. If it is a working one slam a kit in it. Make sure you get one with the improved cooling fins or you will be replacing it fast. Also I would not recommend doing this on a top dollar alternator. If it cost over three hundred to replace it have a pro do it. Even with something this simple.....mistakes can happen.