I am glad it was an easy job to make a correct attachment bracket. And it is a shame the kit for the generator did not fit correctly.
How about a story on the dune buggy in the backround?
Update by Tim Suddard to the
Elva Mk VI project car
Dec 24, 2024
|
Elva,
Restoration,
Elva Mk VI
Photography by Tim Suddard
Our Elva Mk VI sports racer would have come originally fitted with a generator. We’d rather run an alternator but at the same time keep things looking period correct.
While visiting England’s Beaulieu Autojumble last fall, however, we found and an original Lucas generator that had been transformed into an alternator. This find offered us vintage looks and modern internals.
[Why we chose an alternator, not a generator, for our Elva]
Now we just had to figure out how to mount it to our Coventry Climax FWA engine. Steve Sanett of Penta Motorsports offered us the necessary bracket for about $300. While that seemed a bit pricey, hand fabrication does not come cheaply, and had the pieces fit, that would have been a fairly reasonable way to solve this conundrum.
He sent the pieces, and while beautifully made and powder coated, we had to remake the plate that bolts to the front of the engine as, at least on our FWA, the bolt holes did not line up. The adjusting bracket also had to be ground down a bit to clear a bolt on the timing chain cover.
In a couple of three-hour sessions–which admittedly included a few trips to the parts store to finally get the right belt–we finally had our alternator mounted: O’Reilly part No. 9395 measuring 40 1/8 x ½ inches. (For help on sizing a belt, we found some helpful tools at the Tameson site.)
A tip for figuring out belt length, too, when there’s no factory literature for that situation: Take an old belt, cut it so it’s no longer continuous, and wrap it around the pullies. Then mark the needed length with a silver marker.
And a tip for transferring bolt holes, as we had to do when remaking that mounting plate. Put a piece of a masking tape over the bolt holes on the old part. Lightly tap down over the holes and then carefully remove the masking tape. Now lay the tape on your new part. The holes should be perfectly lined up where you need them.
As with seemingly everything on this project, the simple 15-minute job of mounting the alternator to the engine ended up taking hours. Welcome to basically recreating something from nothing.
I am glad it was an easy job to make a correct attachment bracket. And it is a shame the kit for the generator did not fit correctly.
How about a story on the dune buggy in the backround?
I wonder if the dynamo mount plate that was supplied was the correct drilling for a cylinder head with the frount mounting points cast in place. I seem to recall from the previous posts on the Climax in your Elva that the front mount was screwed/bolted to the head.
Displaying 1-2 of 2 commentsView all comments on the CMS forums
You'll need to log in to post.
