The surprising birth and life of alternators!

Starting around 1950, police and taxi operators could buy alternators in their Mopars, in their Plymouths and Dodges

but other people couldn't. Later on, they started adding them to power wagons, but still an option

Why? Because they were expensive, because they were big, because they used more energy from the engine than the old standby generators

But the good thing about an alternator is that they can be higher capacity, and they last longer because all the current is not going through the brushes

and they can charge even when idle. So what Glenn Farrison did is, for the 1960 Chrysler alternators

is he figured out a way to use diodes as an efficient rectifier to go from the alternator's alternating current to the direct current that the car can actually use

So they started out with just 30 amps, which isn't a whole lot, and then they increased the amperage year by year, quite rapidly for a while

If you wanted an alternator that was 60 amps or above, then they still bought leased Neville alternators as they had before they made their own

But the 1960 Valiant was the first car in the world to have a standard alternator. Every single one had them

From 1962 on, they switched to a new redesign, but they still had one brush connected to a terminal and the other to the housing

because it was easier to work with the electromechanical voltage regulator that way

Other than one big alternator in 1969, which was a special unit with a weird three terminal voltage regulator

they went to the electronic voltage regulator in 1970 and had a new round back alternator with just two terminals, one attached to each brush

It was more efficient that way, and they could get more power out of it

In 1972, they had the new, more reliable square back, which was designed for easier assembly and service

So the earlier ones had to press and solder six diodes. In the new square back, they had two diode packs, which didn't need to be soldered or pressed

So if you want to retrofit an older car, you need to use the flat pack electronic 1970 and up voltage regulator, which is really cheap

By 1975, Chrysler had a full 100 amp alternator, which was actually good for 117 amps at maximum output

The pinnacle was 1987, when they had a new alternator at 120 amps peak output, 50 amps at idle, and they were actually smaller than the 100 amp, but bigger than the original square back

They were a completely new design, but they ended in 1989, and after that, Chrysler bought all their alternators

It was the end of a long and happy story. For more, including some more details on how they work and how to date them, go to Motails

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