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From the inventors of the modern alternator! 1960-1989
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0:00
starting around
0:02
1950 police and taxi operators could buy
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alternators in their Mopars in their
0:07
plymouths and Dodges but other people
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couldn't later on they started adding
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them to Power Wagons but still an option
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why because they were expensive because
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they were big uh because they used more
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energy from the engine uh than the old
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standby generators but the good thing
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about an alternator is that they can be
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higher capacity and they last longer
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because all the currents not going
0:32
through the brushes and they can charge
0:35
even when idle so what Glenn farrison
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did is for the 1960 Chrysler alternators
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is he figured out a way to use diodes as
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an efficient rectifier to go from the
0:46
alternator's alternating current to the
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direct current that the car can actually
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use so they started out with just 30
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amps which isn't a whole lot and then
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they increase the amperage Year bye uh
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quite rapidly for a while if you wanted
1:02
an alternator that was 60 amps or above
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then they still bought at least Neville
1:06
alternators as they had before they made
1:08
their own but the 1960 Valiant was the
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first car in the world to have a
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standard alternator every single one had
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them uh from 1962 on they switched to a
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new redesign but they still had one
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brush connected to a terminal and the
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other to the housing because it was
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easier to work with the
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electromechanical voltage regulator that
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way
1:31
other than one big alternator in 1969
1:33
which was a special unit with a weird
1:36
three terminal voltage regulator they
1:38
went to the electronic voltage regulator
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in
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1970 and had a new roundback alternator
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with just two terminals one attached to
1:47
each brush it was more efficient that
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way and they could get more power out of
1:51
it in 1972 they had the new more
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reliable Square back which was designed
1:57
for easier assembly and service so the
1:59
earlier ones had to press and solder six
2:02
dodes in the new Square back they had
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two diode packs which didn't need to be
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soldered or
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pressed so if you want to retrofit an
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older car you need to use the flat pack
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electronic 1970 and up voltage regulator
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which is really cheap by 1975 Chrysler
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had a full 100 amp alternator which was
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actually good for 117 amps at maximum
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output the Pinnacle was 1986 7 when they
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had a new alternator at 120 amps Peak
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output uh 50 amps at idle and they were
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actually smaller than the 100 amp but
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bigger than the original squareback they
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were a completely new design but they
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ended in 1989 and after that Chrysler
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bought all their alternators it was the
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end of a long and happy story for more
2:53
including some more details on how they
2:55
work and how to date them go to motals
2:58
don't forget to come back to Mol ts.com
3:00
where we have more details on this story
3:03
and far more stories of chryler
3:06
technology and history and people and
3:09
technology and how they did things so
3:12
come back to motels.com
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