Just a few moments this evening. I mounted the new alternator bracket and it all seems to line up. All I need now is to get a fan belt of the right sort of size. I'll have to go to Halfords and root through what they've got.
The next thing to do is to make up some sort of brace so that I can hold the alternator in position.
After some searching I had managed to get hold of some large (50mm) blind grommets,
which I needed to block up the hole into the gearbox filler.
To be fair, it was Jim who found them, supplied by Vehicle Wiring Products. The fact that I already had a link to their web site on the links page here is more than a little frustrating....!
So, I cut a large hole in the inner GRP panel with a hole saw (very reminiscent smell of resin here!), removed the filler and used the oil I got from DJE to fill the 'box. The only problem is the manual says that it should take about 1.5 litres and I poured 2 litres in with no sign of anything coming out? Perhaps I'll phone Dave Ellis and ask him, in the process of ordering some more oil perhaps?
After that, it was back to the alternator bracket. I finished welding on another
flying buttress to support the adjustment bracket (which I am reusing from the original bracketry. With luck it's
finished now although the sheer size and complexity of the thing is daunting. Having constructed a prototype I
might be able to think of some way of making it smaller....?
The real problem is actually the adjustment. As the alternator has to go above original mounting it's difficult to get an adjustment mounting in the right place. (That's what the thing sticking out the left of this bracket here is.)
Still with luck it'll work, and it does fit under the nose cone and bonner, I checked.
I wouldn't have believed that it was going to take so long, but I've finally
finished (until I remake it) the alternator bracket. It will hopefully work, although the alternator is sitting
in a rather strange position. If I had the P6 style water pump and crankshaft pulley, it would work much better.
Although they're only about 0.6" shorter I think it would make all the difference.
Having now got the alternator in position, I wired it up to the loom. When I
got the exchange alternator I also got a connector for it, another advantage of getting the exchange as apparently
the connectors for the old alternator are no longer available.
It's just occurred to me that this is the first bit of wire that's connected to the engine itself...
in case you've got to this frame directly and can't get out, go here.