Motorola Alternator with Presolite Ingition

[policecentral]

I have old style A4 with Prestolite ignition. Recently my alternator with a single output terminal bit the dust. I have a Motorola from a new style A4 but it has the output terminal, plus a coiled wire that attaches to the + side of the coil.

Can anyone tell me if I can use the Motorola, attach the wire to the + side of the coil and all would be fine?? Or, are the Prestolite ignition and the Motorola alternator incompatible? Thanks,

Jim
R-30 Northern Light
Savannah, GA

[Don Moyer]

Jim,

You should be fine to use the internally regulated, single output late model Motorola as you described. The wire to the plus side of the coil is simply a field exciting lead to get the alternator started. In case you haven't seen it written anywhere else, be sure to never pass through "OFF" on your battery master switch. The Motorola is very unforgiving of being operated with no load applied.

Don

[policecentral]

Thanks, Don. Will give it a try and let you know if there are any problems.

Jim

[policecentral]

Don,
Tried to mount the Motorola alternator on the old style A4. It would not fit properly on the mounting bracket. Apparently there is a slight difference in the mounting brackets between the old style and the new style. The bolt holes on the old style are drilled slightly higher than on the new style -- hence the alternator will not rotate down properly.

The "flange" on the Motorola for the mounting bolt will not permit the alternator to be rotated "low" enough to mount the belt. Will need to get new alternator matching the bad one that has two separate bolt "tangs" instead of a central flange. Thought you might want to know.

Jim