The great Alternator question

[pena]

Need some advise.
After 11 years of owning the Chimaera, I have been through 3 alternators.
The current one has just given up, and now I finding it pretty tricky to pick up a direct replacement.

I do not want to recondition my current one, plus I don't want one from the breakers yard.

I have done a bit of research and found that:
- Lucas A115 (55 amp) or Lucas A127(70 Amp) is what is needed.

Is there anybody else that has tried a different alternator yet ?
Also, can anyone please explain what the thin yellow/brown wire to the alternator is for? It seems to have a constant live feed...

Thanks

[paulathome]

Pretty sure you need a 100 amp alternator not 75 Amp.
Available from most Land Rover dealers for around 100 quid new.
The brown wire is probably the wire from the charging light on the dash which then goes to the battery.
This is what energises the field windings within the alternator to make it charge when the engine is running.
Paul.
Here is one link for starters.
Good luck.
http://www.famousfour.co.uk/new_parts/parts-veh-rr...

[bsdnazz]

paulathome said:

Pretty sure you need a 100 amp alternator not 75 Amp.

My recently failed (first alternator failure in 8 years ownership) was replace with another 100amp alternator.

[Timja]

AMR4247 was the part number for mine (100A) on my 1998 Chimaera.

I replaced my (i believe original) alternator last January when my car had done 76k as the bearings were really worn and a terrible noise was coming from the alternator. My car has now done 80k and the alternator i fitted last January stopped working 2 weeks ago. i.e. it lasted 16months / 4000 miles.

I was not impressed with this and contacted the Land Rover specialist i bought it from. Part only had a 1 year warranty but they agreed that if i returned it they would send back to the manufacturer as a complaint.

On Friday i phoned them to see what was happening and was told that as a guesture of good will they manufacturer had decided to fix it for free.

Then the conversation got strange, the guy then said however if i had realised at the time that it was for a TVR i wouldn't have even entertained the idea of helping and contacting the manufacturer. 'We supply Land Rover and Jaguars, NOT TVRs' he said.

I then questioned what difference it made and he started getting really funny with me saying a Land Rover part had been fitted to a non Land Rover and they don't supply TVRs.

I then decided not to push it too much as they were basically helping me out.

Today I phoned them and asked if I paid whether they could post to me as i may struggle to get there during the week and they refused to post (despite being a mainly mail order company) and said i could only pick it up from them.

It's all very odd. I am going to have to leave work 2hrs early if i can tomorrow to get to them and collect, so will give an update tomorrow hopefully and once i have the part in my hands will quiz them further on what it should make any difference and why they do not want to supply TVR owners.

Unless i am missing something, surely it makes no difference whether it is fitted to my TVR or a V8 Range Rover? in fact, there are much less gadgets draining the battery on my TVR compare to a Range Rover, so surely it should be less drain in comparison. Car doesnt rev higher than a Range rover i dont think, and just has a belt round it like any other alternator.

Can anyone suggest any reason why an Alternator on a TVR should work or last any differently to one on a Range Rover?

[pena]

Timja said:

Then the conversation got strange, the guy then said however if i had realised at the time that it was for a TVR i wouldn't have even entertained the idea of helping and contacting the manufacturer. 'We supply Land Rover and Jaguars, NOT TVRs' he said.

Yep, I had this exact conversation today with Land Rover dealer. He got quite arsey as soon as I mentioned TVR. The quoted alternator he suggested then came out at £394 excluding VAT. I promptly said good bye.

[davep]

To OP if you've got a '93 pre-serp engine, an A127 65 Amp will do just fine.

I'd hazard a guess that an alternator on a TVR will be subject to lot more under-bonnet heat than a Land Rover.

[pena]

davep said:

To OP if you've got a '93 pre-serp engine, an A127 65 Amp will do just fine.

I'd hazard a guess that an alternator on a TVR will be subject to lot more under-bonnet heat than a Land Rover.

What am trying to find out is that are there any other choices apart from the 2 I mentioned ?
I currently have a brand new Lucas alternator that am think of trying to get it to work. It's currently installed now on the car, but I need to work out how/where which combination the thin brown/yellow cable connects too.

I'll get a picture and post it in a minute so you can see.

[pena]

Here it is.
It's fits perfectly, but the connection points at the back are a bit different.

[Timja]

davep said:

I'd hazard a guess that an alternator on a TVR will be subject to lot more under-bonnet heat than a Land Rover.

Didn't think about the heat.... although still not sure why that would explain why the original lasted 12 years and 76k and the 2nd one lasted a lot less. Will try and find out what the fault was with the one i returned if they will have a sensible conversation with me tomorrow!

[davep]

Timja said:

Didn't think about the heat.... although still not sure why that would explain why the original lasted 12 years and 76k and the 2nd one lasted a lot less. Will try and find out what the fault was with the one i returned if they will have a sensible conversation with me tomorrow!

Quality (as in heat tolerance) of your 12 year old alternator's components compared to more modern cheaper units.

pena do a search on the internet and try to find your particular alternator's terminal designations. Looks like the initial field current supply lead (brown/yellow) to the regulator goes to the spade connector instead of a post terminal as on an A127, but I'd verify that first. I'd be interested to see how you have mounted the alternator.

[pena]

davep said:

Quality (as in heat tolerance) of your 12 year old alternator's components compared to more modern cheaper units.

pena do a search on the internet and try to find your particular alternator's terminal designations. Looks like the initial field current supply lead (brown/yellow) to the regulator goes to the spade connector instead of a post terminal as on an A127, but I'd verify that first. I'd be interested to see how you have mounted the alternator.

The alternator required no modifications to fit.
Went straight on. The reason I want this is that the equivalent TVR spec had 7 ribs on the belt loop. This is a straight swap bar the back obviously.

I guessed that the yellow/brown might be connecting to each one, but I was stumped which one it was.

Thanks.

[spend]

Brown / yellow (ign light + exciter) goes in the middle connection, the one on the outside is for suppressor. That ground wire is a bit of a dilemna, I just taped mine up but some found it to ground the otter switch - in which case I wouldnt have it connected anywhere near the alt personally.

Why are your alts failing? Bearings = bad alignment of belts, electrical prob bad wiring / contacts. The picture looks plain wrong to me BTW, 93 should have 4 big brown wires all connected to the alt, 2 go to starter (link to battery cable nowt to do with starter really) the other 2 to the fusebox via top of the engine, which is the arrangement that predates the pesky (Pete Humphries coined that phrase ) fuse.

[pena]

spend said:

Brown / yellow (ign light + exciter) goes in the middle connection, the one on the outside is for suppressor. That ground wire is a bit of a dilemna, I just taped mine up but some found it to ground the otter switch - in which case I wouldnt have it connected anywhere near the alt personally.

Why are your alts failing? Bearings = bad alignment of belts, electrical prob bad wiring / contacts. The picture looks plain wrong to me BTW, 93 should have 4 big brown wires all connected to the alt, 2 go to starter (link to battery cable nowt to do with starter really) the other 2 to the fusebox via top of the engine, which is the arrangement that predates the pesky (Pete Humphries coined that phrase ) fuse.

Looking at previous connections on another 93 car, it has the same set-up.
- 2 big browns
- 1 black
- 1 brow/black
- 2 suppressor boxes

I know no different.
I think the actual alternators I have had are crap to be honest, or maybe bad contacts.

[pena]

spend said:

Brown / yellow (ign light + exciter) goes in the middle connection, the one on the outside is for suppressor. That ground wire is a bit of a dilemna, I just taped mine up but some found it to ground the otter switch - in which case I wouldnt have it connected anywhere near the alt personally.

Why are your alts failing? Bearings = bad alignment of belts, electrical prob bad wiring / contacts. The picture looks plain wrong to me BTW, 93 should have 4 big brown wires all connected to the alt, 2 go to starter (link to battery cable nowt to do with starter really) the other 2 to the fusebox via top of the engine, which is the arrangement that predates the pesky (Pete Humphries coined that phrase ) fuse.

If the outer 1 is the suppressor where is the other end of the suppressor go ?

[davep]

pena said:

Looking at previous connections on another 93 car, it has the same set-up.
- 2 big browns
- 1 black
- 1 brow/black
- 2 suppressor boxes

I know no different.
I think the actual alternators I have had are crap to be honest, or maybe bad contacts.

That's the same wiring configuration as my '92 Griffith (apart from 1 brown/black which is trace yellow) with a '94 Marelli (still going strong) and no pesky 100Amp fuse.

The suppressors will have one side to earth.

What Lucas alternator do you have actually fitted now because it doesn't look like an A115?

[pena]

davep said:

That's the same wiring configuration as my '92 Griffith (apart from 1 brown/black which is trace yellow) with a '94 Marelli (still going strong) and no pesky 100Amp fuse.

The suppressors will have one side to earth.

What Lucas alternator do you have actually fitted now because it doesn't look like an A115?

It's from a rover SD1 - The box is in the garage at the moment, I'll get the part number up here tomorrow.
Yep I too have no 100AMP fuse thank god, but my fusebox is a minefield.
Am currently in the process of getting my battery moved to the boot (once alternator is sorted).
We going with a dry cell battery and fusebox moved to inside the car with a custom made box and fuse holder.
Getting sick of trying to get the battery out of the foot-well.

[Timja]

Managed to get over to the Land Rover specialist today and picked up my brand new Alternator the manufacturer agreed to replace my dead one with.

They did not seem to have any idea what was wrong with my faulty one, and all they said about not supplying TVRs was that the warranty would not cover use of a part on a car that it was not intended for. They said the Alternator was for a Land Rover and so warranty would only cover use of it on a Land Rover.

I'm not sure if this is their warranty or the manufacturers warranty. I guess if it is theirs then they need to make it clearer as when i bought it i remember chatting to the guy about my TVR!

Anyway, i didn't push it too much as they had got me a new Alternator even though it was out of warranty but worth checking when you buy what the terms of the warranty are!

Lets hope this one lasts a bit longer!!

[haircutmike]

Michael, try Autopost, (Land Rover parts) in Wimbledon, not far from you.

They stock 3 variants of alternator, I picked the name brand expensive one, I think it was around £100.00.

They give good advice and are a useful parts supplier.

020 8417 0243.

[pena]

haircutmike said:

Michael, try Autopost, (Land Rover parts) in Wimbledon, not far from you.

They stock 3 variants of alternator, I picked the name brand expensive one, I think it was around £100.00.

They give good advice and are a useful parts supplier.

020 8417 0243.

Yep got the correct alternator in the end, the alternative version I was trying to use worked except it had the wrong regulator's on it. This was stopping the red light on the dash from going out.
I got a A127 in the end for £65 & they delivered within 3 hours of me placing the order. All's well now.

[haircutmike]

Who did you use in the end?