K series - lightweight alternator (Brise / Denso / Daihatsu)

[573]

The standard Rover / Magneti Marelli alternator on my Superlight R has died. In the spirit of upgrading rather than just replacing I've been looking at lighter alternatives.

Brise list a Denso unit. From the part number (5020) this appears to be a standard Denso unit that appears in numerous Daihatsus and I think also Suzukis. The Brise unit is £240 whereas the Daihatsu unit seems to be readily available for under £100.

I guess I'm not the first to notice this... has anyone fitted a Daihatsu souirced Denso?

Second part of my question - the Denso unit has a 3 pin plug. Does anyone have an idiot proof wiring diagram for the swap?

Thanks.

[573]

I’ve got sorted. I’ve bought a Denso and also a lightweight mount, tensioner and pulley kit.

Is there a Caterham forum with more traffic that people would recommend?

[Boylston]

I'm interested to know if it will fit / it's size .v. the existing one.

My superlight with a custom set of headers, the normal high torque replacement doesn't fit.

I ended up having the existing starter motor refurb'd at http://burghfieldstarterandalternatorcentre.co.uk/ and got great service.

Cheers

Simon

[573]

I'll share details in here once I've fitted it. The mount and kit I've bought is for an Elise but I don't see why it won't fit.

[573]

573 said:

I'll share details in here once I've fitted it.

I forgot to share, so here we are:

Initial searches led me to a Brise alternator that seemed to be ~3kg compared to the ~5kg of the original. The Brise unit was £300. More searching unearthed that the Brise unit is made by Nippon Denso and is used on numerous things including Kubota tractors and Daihatsu hatchbacks. These seem to retail for around £99. Better than that, I know Dan Webster who runs HPE http://www.hpeauto.co.uk (the people that put the K20 in the back of my Elise) and he thought he had one of the Denso units in his workshop. Sure enough he did, and he stuck it in the post for me free of charge.

I then tracked down a guy in Austria, under the name of 'Carlos Racing' who makes lightweight mounts and tensioners in order to fit the Denso unit to the K series. Buying from him couldn't have been easier; getting the parts to me proved much harder. The parts made it across Europe and as far as my local distribution centre. I then tracked them onto a van where they then reported the address was incomplete. Despite me contacting them numerous times, they held them for a week and then lost them. Amazingly, the seller, who is a man knocking these out for fun, not a large commercial enterprise, stuck me another set in the post on overnight TNT.

Weight for original bits:

Alternator: 4848g
Pulley: 192g
Mount and tensioner: 1193g
Total 6.23kg

New smaller Denso alternator and lighter pulley:


@2997g

New mount and tensioner:


@547g

Total 3.54kg, which is a loss of: 2.69kg

It's a much better design, simpler to adjust and is now further from the 4th primary too.



I started a thread on the car in reader's rides if anyone's interested: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[22daz]

573 said:

I’ve got sorted. I’ve bought a Denso and also a lightweight mount, tensioner and pulley kit.

Is there a Caterham forum with more traffic that people would recommend?

The best ones I have found are on Facebook. Lots of traffic with questions usually answered within a few mins.

Caterham Techtalk
Caterham Marketplace
Caterham & Lotus 7 owners group

[573]

Cheers. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I'm not on facebook.

[V7SLR]

I did facebook for a couple of weeks purely for Caterham stuff but I've now abandoned it, horrible place.

The other alternative is the Lotus 7 Club, worth the subscription for the forum / discounts / contacts. In nearly 20 years contacts I've made through the L7C have saved me and my business well over £100K.

[573]

I joined a few weeks ago. Still need to read the literature and log-in to othe forums though.

I was told it was good for cheap trackdays - offers on Brands GP for instance. Was a bit annoyed to join and find they all seem to be sessioned days shared with other clubs.

[Carsten]

Many thanks Ste for the contact and for sharing your idea. I have a manage to get a mounting kit from Carlos Racing too and i bought a brise 4Si-50 motorsport alternator.

It turned out that the top mounting is a bit to big, and i have now ordered a alternator that does fit. A friend of mine has a r400 K too, and he will upgrade to your setup aswell.

So because i now have the brise alternator and i want to save as much weight as possible, i need a new mounting kit. The Brise alternator with pulley weights 2.5kg, which is 500g less than your setup. I have now reengineered the mounting kit, so it will fit the brise alternator and this will be cnc milled in a few days. I have also reengineered the other parts, so it is a bit stiffer but not much heavier than carlos parts.

[573]

Ah cool, sounds good. Stick some pics up when you're done, I'm keen to see your solution.

[Smitters]

Hmmm. Following with interest. Stock Elise here, which are quite hard on alternators. May have to dig into thie thread again when mine inevitably gives up the ghost.

[Roginwudhus]

Hi there
Do you have more detail ref Carlos Racing please? Just tried a quick Google and nothing obvious comes up.
I have same cracked upper rear alternator mount

Cheer
Rog