Diary Of The Beast

The past weekend I finally installed all the pieces on my car. Removing the generator and existing mounting plate was pretty straightforward. The old gasket pretty much disintegrated when the old plate came off. I also had to buy new bolts to mount the new plate. The old bolts just weren't long enough once they went through a washer, the new plate and the new gasket. Picture one shows the generator and plate removed.

The next picture shows the new plate installed and the coil bolted into it's new position. I wasn't sure where I was going to put the coil until I saw a picture of another Healey and showing the coil next to the alternator. Then it dawned on me that the existing bracket would fit on the new plate. Probably obvious in hindsight...

Next I needed to install the alternator. Oddly enough, the two bolts that hold the alternator to the new plate came with nuts that didn't fit. Nor could I find any nuts that would fit the bolts I was sent. I eventually went back to the hardware store for yet more hardware and finally got the alternator bolted to the engine along with a new fan belt.

Lastly, I swapped out the existing voltage regulator for my gutted version and just plugged all the existing wiring back. I took an hour and a half trip to Wisconsin and back and the car ran like a champ. I'm quite please with the result.

Now on to the next project.

I decided to purchase all the parts I need from Denis Welch. Yes, not the cheapest route I know. In fact, for those so inclined, you can find just the adapter plates and a GM alternator for significantly less money. But as I mentioned, I'm a novice and I felt more comfortable buying all the parts I need from a company that has made them specifically for the Austin Healey. I now have a mounting plate that bolts to the engine block with a gasket, a Lucas alternator and a few other assorted pieces. I've heard the horror stories about Lucas electronics but I figure after this many decades, they've got to know how to build a decent alternator right? he said, whistling past the graveyard.

I'll add pics as I embark on the replacement, hopefully quite soon

As mentioned in the previous post, the new regulator is gutted and ready to be rewired. According the Moss Motors video, when I install the alternator, the large lead from the alternator will feed power to anything that is currently attached to the voltage regulator's B tab. The small alternator lead will attach to the warning light. That's about it. So, within the gutted regulator the D tab will attach to the large lead on the alternator. D will then be wired directly to the B tabs. The small lead from the alternator will attach to the F tab which will be wired directly to WL. E remains as before.

In the first picture below, I've drilled out the small rivets holding WL to D and also the one holding F. In the lower right of the picture are the small rivets, now removed and one of the small doughnuts of insulating material which are made of the same stuff as the larger pieces on the regulator base plate. These little doughnuts are quite important and help to keep the rivets from touching the base plate as they pass through it. Don't lose these.

The WL tab has a slight kink in it, just visible in the picture below. This will need to be flattened out gently as the plan is to flip the WL tab over and attach it to the F tab. instead. The bottom side rewired picture shows the result of flattening WL and screwing all the tabs back together with machine screws and washers.

The top side rewired picture shows the D tab attached to the B tabs with a piece of 8-guage wire. The wire is connected with a circular connector on one end and soldered to the existing copper post riveted to the B tabs on the other. With these modifications I now have a "voltage regulator" that takes power from D and sends it to B and wires F to WL. After checking connectivity with a voltmeter, the new "regulator" is ready to take the place of the old one once I swap in the alternator.

The best part is I don't have to cut any of the wires in the car (that's the theory at least) and I can still have a functional box on the firewall. If, in the future, someone wanted to switch back, they would only need to swap in the actual voltage regulator and reinstall the generator.

Here's hoping it all works...

I've embarked on assembling the various pieces I think I'll need to replace my generator with an alternator. I've decided to document the whole process here. I'm sure most members of the forum will find this kind of thing comically easy, but if you're a complete novice like me then maybe this will prove to be of some interest.

To begin with, I watched the Moss Motors YouTube video explaining how to do the swap quite a few times. The short of it is, the voltage regulator on the firewall becomes unnecessary, and the wires that used to go to it are to be cut and wired together. Then the voltage regulator is either removed entirely or left on the firewall as a relic of a previous age. Personally, I don't want to cut any wires if I can help it and I'd rather not have either of a) a voltage regulator with nothing going to it or b) a blank spot where the voltage regulator used to be. It seems to me that it should be possible to use the voltage regulator to do the rewiring, so that's what I plan to do.

First, I purchased a new voltage regulator from Moss Motors. (To the extent possible, I don't want to modify or damage any of the original parts so if someone in the future wants to put things back the way they were they'll have the parts to do it.) In the top side photo below I've labeled the tabs. They are, from left to right, E - earth, D - dynamo, WL - warning light, F - field and B - battery, at least that's the story I'm telling. The bottom side photo shows the tabs right to left. Notice that D and WL are attached. All of three of D, WL and F are held by a screws (not shown as I'd gutted the regulator at this point) and small rivets.

E is screwed to the firewall, D is the large wire coming from the generator (aka dynamo) and F is the small wire coming from the generator. WL goes off to the warning light on the dash and the two B tabs go off to the various parts of the car needing power.

Next comes the rewiring...

So, my next question concerns the light bar that was added to the car. It has two driving lights attached - the one on the right (of the car) has a clear lens, the other side is patterned. The switch that controls the lights is three positioned. In the middle the lights are off. Switch up and one side goes on and switch down the other side goes on. There is no position to switch on both lights and they are not controlled by the headlights.

Is this a standard wiring? I can't decide if there is some purpose to this set up or if the lights are just there for show. Given that one points up at the trees and the other off into the bushes, it doesn't look like any effort was made to aim them in any particular place.

I've searched the forum and haven't seen a similar question so I'll probably post there for an answer.

Well, turns out there was a mistake on my heritage certificate. The dispatch date was indeed a year off - no big surprise - so another one is going to be sent to me. In all, the situation was remedied far easier than I had expected.