Haven't had one rebuilt in a good many years, so, I haven't had to deal with
India crap. However, I suspect my rebuilder would be able to locate a
source for USA/UK/German made bearings, diodes & brushes.
BTW, the OE Lucas alternator in my '74 BGT lasted about 90,000 miles. I had
it rebuilt, and it has done around 40,000 miles since then, in the B. Seems
like, when I parked the B, to await restoration, that alternator went into
my '72 Midget, which has been running the same alternator for the last 16
years, although my annual mileage for that period is way down from "back in
the day".
But, thanks for the heads-up about the India crap. I've got a '73 Midget
(35K orig. mi, one owner car) that will be ready for paint, this spring, and
I'll want to check the original alternator over before reinstalling it. If
I'm successful in finding some replacement parts, made in a 1st world
country/western civilization, I'll share my source with the List.
Bud Osbourne
-----Original Message-----
From David Riker [mailto:davriker at digitalpath.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 1:22 AM
To: Bud Osbourne; David Lieb; Spridget List
Subject: Re: GM Alternator
Unfortunately, all of the internals that are available to rebuild a Lucas
Alternator now come from India and are p.o.s. I have never had a rebuilt
Lucas Alternator last for more than 1 year. I have had a Saturn alternator
on the Midget for the last 6 years, powering hi wattage headlights, and a
stereo with a power amplifier and an electronic ignition. As I commented in
another post, the Saturn alternator has all of the modern updates, and was
designed with a life expectancy of 150,000 miles. I'm sure the Lucas unit
was designed to last 12,500 miles or until the factory warantee ended, which
ever came first.
David Riker
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