Chevy Alternator on a Mopar?

[Black and Blown]

Overheard a conversation between a couple Mopar guys stating that the 'dim headlights at idle' problem is most easily solved by replacing the Mopar alternator with a GM that swaps right in.  Any of you know of this???  It's the first time I've heard of it.  I'd do that in a second if it is for real.  Thanks!

[Nacho-RT74]

yes, is true, very tipical here. My uncle did it on his 73 Dart... LOOOOTS of mopars with that modification here. I don't like  but is true that works

[Ghoste]

I think Jegs or Summit or somebody even offers a kit to do so.  It isn't as easy as just buying the alternator and bolting it on but it nearly is.  The headlights dimming at idle is a Mopar thing that didn't seem to alarm anybody until  recent years.  They ran for a long time with that "feature".  Kind of like the cool sound our starters make.

[8WHEELER]

This is also popular on some race cars, 493 charger has a small one on his 68 charger and is very happy.

Dan

[Ghoste]

Is that because of parasitic loss or reliability or what?

I guess I should ask him.

[martinihenry]

My understanding of the dim headlights issue is that   the headlight circuits in these cars are simply underwired. The wires have too much resistance per foot, and a voltage drop is created by these substandard wires. Mad Electrical shows this on their website....

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/brighter-headlights.shtml

Switching to a bigger alternator isn't the answer. In fact, it could potentially cause more serious problems. You could wind up with these already substandard wires melting due to too much current flowing through them. The stock Mopar alternator should be more than adequate to drive stock headlights at idle at a decent brightness. So, the fix for this is to install headlight relays as Mad suggests. An ideal solution would also have you replace the ka-ka factory wire with a nice, thicker gauge wire to ensure the least ohmic resistance per foot.

Cheers,
Jason

[Ghoste]

Or learn to live with it.  It's been a fact on these old Mopars for a long time.

[martinihenry]

But it was so dreadfully annoying! Not to mention, it was also embarrassing when people noticed it. I lived with it for a long time, but when I found out a solution was available, I jumped on it.

There's nothing quite as satisfying as fixing or improving a piece of machinery.

[Black and Blown]

My thoughts exactly... the sound of our starter is just something that is unique... whereas the headlights dimming at a stoplight projects the message "wow, that car can't even pull it's own alternator" or something equally whimpy.  The message of the rest of my car is "holy smoke what a badasz car" so I intend to fix that little idiosyncricy.  I don't mind, however, if some of you enjoy that aspect of your car.  To each his/her own. 

Son of a gun, don't we have spellcheck anymore?  I'm pretty sure I messed up that long word I used up there.

[Ghoste]

Just tell people it's a special low drag alternator designed for high horsepower NASCAR use back in the day and it wasn't meant to idle all day.
Or if they're really dumb about cars, just tell them you removed every other field coil so it would function better at high speed.

[Black and Blown]

Just tell people it's a special low drag alternator designed for high horsepower NASCAR use back in the day and it wasn't meant to idle all day.
Or if they're really dumb about cars, just tell them you removed every other field coil so it would function better at high speed.

GOOD ONE!!