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Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Damian Mills
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2018 12:28 pm
Location: Keighley England

Pulley for Conquest Century Dynamator Conversion

Post by Damian Mills »

Geoff

You said that a "steel B belt pulley from a V8 250 saloon 11AC alternator is ideal" for a Dynamator (C39) conversion.

Unfortunately, I am not very knowledgeable on pulleys and belts.

Marcel, the DLOC obsolete parts co-ordinator, has CNC-manufactured "Daimler V8 water pump pulley (alternator type)" pulleys for sale on the DLOC parts for sale forum. Is this the same pattern that you used?

I now have a highly recommended auto electrician in Keighley lined up to do a Negative Earth Conversion and fit the Dynamator on Monday, if the Dynamator arrives on schedule.

Cheers

Damian

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migray
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Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by migray »

Holden who sell the dynalite also sell the pulleys though the one for the wide belt is out of stock https://www.holden.co.uk/displayproduct ... de=081.218

I think you need one for a 15mm shaft with a keyway. I don't think Marcel's have this.

Ebay has some for sale eg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-LUCAS-AC ... :rk:2:pf:0
and possibly https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pulley-for-L ... rk:14:pf:0

but you need to check they are suitable for the alternator you buy and the car's belts

Mike

Damian Mills
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2018 12:28 pm
Location: Keighley England

Pulley for the Dynamator Conversion

Post by Damian Mills »

Thanks for the advice and information Mike

It is a Dynamator, not the more expensive Dynalite.

The Dynamator information suggests that they should charge the battery properly using the original pulley. Feedback on this forum, and on the wider internet, suggests that this is unlikely because alternators need a smaller pulley so that they spin faster.

Forgive me if I am over-simplistic. This is not one of my areas of knowledge and expertise.

I never knew that many alternators need fans. :?

The auto electrician who will do the fitting comes very highly recommended by an old friend who has had many classic cars. He will do a negative conversion and then fit the Dynamator C39. I hope that he will be able to fit the Dynamator with a pulley that will spin it fast enough for it to charge well, otherwise I will need to get a smaller pulley fitted. Fortunately, in case of the latter scenario I have already made some new friends through DLOC who are helping me a lot.

Cheers

Damian

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Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Petelang »

Hi Damien.
The device needs a fan to draw air through the machine to cool it. As the original dynamo would only produce about 20 amps, but it still needed a fan on the front. The Dynamator (alternator) you are fitting will in fact produce considerably more output and hence a greater amount of heat will be generated. So you must have a fan fitted to it and it must draw air through the machine from vent holes at the rear.
Secondly, as there may be more output, your wiring may need to be a bit bigger and have good clean terminals to handle the power. You will be eliminating the old regulator and cut out from the system since these new alternators have built in voltage regulation.
Finally, the choice of pulley is important that you don't go too small as otherwise a very high output at even low engine speeds may give rise to excessive heat in the machine, especially if on full load, I.e. with all lights and blowers on.
From what I have read regarding failures of these Dynamators, this is the most common cause, along with rotational speed in excess of designed at high outputs. The supplier should be able to advise you fully about that.
Best regards
Peter
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Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Sydsmith »

I have been reading this post and waiting for some one to point out the advantage of an alternator over a dynamo with regard to engine speed.

If you put a meter across the output of a dynamo and turn it by hand almost nothing comes out, on the other hand, if you make the same test on an alternator it just needs a good spin by hand to produce a good current output.

At tick over modern cars with alternators generate current, with a dynamo you need 1000 rpm or so to begin charging the battery. I question the need for a smaller pulley to increase the rotation speed and would be concerned that you could damage the alternator by running it at too high a speed. But Peter is right you must fit a fan.

But I could be wrong.

Phillmore
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Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Phillmore »

Sydsmith wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:14 pm I have been reading this post and waiting for some one to point out the advantage of an alternator over a dynamo with regard to engine speed.

If you put a meter across the output of a dynamo and turn it by hand almost nothing comes out, on the other hand, if you make the same test on an alternator it just needs a good spin by hand to produce a good current output.

At tick over modern cars with alternators generate current, with a dynamo you need 1000 rpm or so to begin charging the battery. I question the need for a smaller pulley to increase the rotation speed and would be concerned that you could damage the alternator by running it at too high a speed. But Peter is right you must fit a fan.

But I could be wrong.
That's exactly what I've been thinking. I was always led to believe that the main advantage of alternators over dynamos was that alternators charged well at low revs.
Andy

1954 Conquest Mk1, 1956 Conquest Mk2, 1957 Conquest Century Mk2, 1955 Austin A90 Westminster

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Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Fossil »

Damian

Apologies for my lack of reply to your request until now, life is hectic at the moment.

My spare Dynamator drive belt ref is: Gates V belt 6472MC, AVX13 x 1050 La. It appears to have multiple modern car applications.

I hope that your conversion goes well

Regards

Geoff

Damian Mills
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Location: Keighley England

Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Damian Mills »

Thank you very much for all of the advice.

Pleased to report Dynamator fitted and working well. With the existing pulley and fan it was tested and found to be charging at 12.8 volts when idling and at 13 volts under revs.

Dynamator was fitted by Watley Hall of RW Performance, Keighley, Yorkshire. He also did a negative earth conversion and fitted an LED high level brake light in the top of the back window. He does quite a lot of work on classic cars, including Jowetts and Mercedes. He also sourced and fitted a pair of new (old stock) front shock absorbers on Friday. He is an apprentice trained auto electrician, a very thorough, competent and careful mechanic and a highly skilled fabricator (and fitter) of stainless steel exhausts. I highly recommend him (search the internet and you will find him easily). He was recommended to me by an old friend who has been an active classic car enthusiast and owner for many years.

Graham and I are setting off for Hungary with the car tomorrow.

Damian

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Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Fossil »

Hi Damian

Delighted to see that it has been fitted successfully, I'll remember the successful use of the original pulley and fan, excellent!

Good luck on your trip to Hungary; if you are going for classic car related reasons please keep a look out for a Hooper bodied Empress style 2 door Century UK reg no LBR775 (a Dauphin actually, the sister car to mine) it was sold from eBay in 2012 to someone in Hungary, requiring complete restoration. It may be now back on the road, I await news of its fate one way or another.

Regards

Geoff

Damian Mills
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Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2018 12:28 pm
Location: Keighley England

Re: Need urgent advice regarding newly acquired 1957 Century

Post by Damian Mills »

Hi Geoff

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

Life has certainly been hectic for me too in the last few weeks.

My wife and I have a home in Hungary as well as one in Yorkshire.

The plan was to make the trip over to Hungary with the Century (now named Delilah) and get some bodywork done on her in Eger. To cut a long story short, the big end went in Germany on 24 October. I arrived in Hungary on 26 October. Delilah arrived in Hungary a week ago. The engine is now out for a rebuild.

There are very few Daimlers around in Hungary, except XJ-based cars.

There are a few dealers/restorers in Hungary (most, if not all, are in or around Budapest) who buy classic cars needing heavy restoration, do them up taking advantage of the low labour rates here and then sell them on for a decent profit. I would suggest that this is most likely what happened with the 2-door Century Dauphin, so there is a very high likelihood that the car is no longer in Hungary.

There's currently a restored DR450 for sale on hasznaltauto.hu (the Hungarian equivalent of auto trader). There's a fair chance that the same dealer and/or restorer might well have had the 2-door Century Dauphin through their hands. You might want to get in touch with them, they will almost certainly have somebody there who is fluent in English.

https://www.hasznaltauto.hu/szemelyauto ... 8-13462613

I'm not a betting man, but if I had to place a bet on what country the sister to your car ended up in then I would put my money on Germany.

I hope the above is helpful.

Kind regards

Damian

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