24v Saf alternator options?protect from mud?

[Craydiver]

My Chinese unit failed after 18mths
All the auto sparkies tell me nothing will last if im putting mud thru them
Looking at getting the unit rebuilt by AES in Henderson for 670 +, this is for a 70amp option
they do a great job and should have better durability than the off the shelf units
My question is has anyone found cheaper options (not the Chinese imports on TM)?
Or has anyone got tricks to reduce the impact of mud into them?

[mudlva]

yep stay away from thomos and wood hill

[silveradoman]

fit it further out of the mud to the top end of the engine like the chevy silverado lq9 v8 truck engines

[derk]

you could mount the alt in the glovebox and it would still end up full of mud best thing you can do is keep a spare alt sitting on the shelf in the shed

if you were 12v and didn't need the vac pump you can raid pickapart for a pile of cheap disposable alt's but that's not going to work for your setup

[Pighorn]

Drill n tap a air fitting into the side of it so when ur in mud and water you can feed about 10-15psi of air into it to create a air pocket inside the alt helps keep all the diods/brushs n charging reg dry. N water and mud out. Had it set up like that n my old sas'd ubs55 bighorn n it worked well didnt blow a alt in the 5years i had the truck afta doing that mod and trust me my old bighorn used to love going for a swim

[Craydiver]

Brilliant, I have on board air off AC and tank, so will definitely look at doing this.
Kiwi's always have the good ideas

[Crash bandicoot]

alternator internals dont mind mud and water.... it's when they have electricity passing through them at the same time that kills em.

Last truck had a switch interupting the exiter wire which would kill the output from the alt whilst it was in a bog if need be. If it looked like it would be up to the grill or over would kill both alternators never failed, those same alt's are now on two different trucks and still going strong.

you'd want to be running pretty high cca batteries (atleast twin 770's) if ya did that though. to still give the winch enough juice to pull you up out of it to surface the alternator before flicking the switch back on.

but yeah as above if you have on board air creating positive pressure in the case would be the go.

[ChurchurDan]

Most of the Nissan alternators I have stripped off of offroad vehicles have stopped due to the brushes getting stuck in the brush holder or collapsed bearings. The mud and water doesn't damage much else other than a bit more corrosion than normal. A good hose out with the engine running helps after being in mud.
The other option for a safari is to use a 60amp unit off of a small Isuzu truck. Swapping the pulleys, an oil return hose mod and minor wiring alteration is all that is required.

[Pighorn]

I like the small isuzu truck 60amp alt idea. There a gd unit and a bouns is they dont just do a small 60amp unit you can also get a small 120amp one. Every 1 likes more power

[Craydiver]

yep had seen a few threads mentioning Isuzu truck alts
Assume these would be a better option that the Chinese or rebuild options
Any places good to source these from?

[ChurchurDan]

Engine importers are a good place to start.
On monday I will dig one out I have at work and list up the part numbers and which engine they are off of.

[Twodiffs]

Ok, what you want is an alternator from an Isuzu 4HF1.
It has the vacuum pump on the back, is 24v and 50amps, it's a direct fit to a Nissan TD42.
If I remember correctly it has a 3 groove pulley and I cut that 3rd groove off with a 1mm grinder blade.

It will fit...mine didn't because i've got 4" pipe from the airbox to the turbo...otherwise I'd have it in now.
I got it from Driveline Imports in ChCh.

And you do have to have the wiring connection from the Isuzu alt to match the Nissan plug.
It's a very minor modification.

[ChurchurDan]

The part number for the 60 amp unit is LR260-502 or LR260-504 and is found on NPR and NKR trucks with 4HF1, 4HG1 and 4HJ1 engines. There is also a listing for an 80 amp unit that is for the later 4HJ1 and 4HK1 engines.