[Vwdiesel] Finally need a new alternator? Burning through brushes.

[Will Taygan]

90 amp alternator.  I'm sure I'm putting stress on it, especially in the
winter.  I figured that was partially why I burned through brushes every
6 months.

Does the amp rating decrease as they age?  

The 94 Frankenjetta has a 1.6l with a serpentine belt setup and a 120
amp alternator.  PO set it up that way, maybe I'll reverse-engineer what
he did someday.  Great for running, PITA when I need to work on
anything, as it takes up almost all the space between the engine and the
body.

Yellow top is to run the Espar diesel-fired heater an hour or so and
still have reserve for glow plugs and starting at -20F.  30 minute drive
home hopefully is returning a full charge.

Will.

On Tue, 2009-01-13 at 21:17 -0600, brian gochnauer wrote:
> >"Oh yeah, I've got a new optima yellow-top and pull quite a bit of
> >Amperage running the heater/radio/lights/vegtherm/etc. especially in
> the winter."
>  
> How many amps are you pulling, how many amps is the alternator?
>  
> Many people always forget; 
> The size of the battery does NOT help when you have a large load over
> an extended time.
>  
> The battery is like a cup of water, the alternator is like the faucet.
> If your load continually nears alternator capacity, it forces the
> alternator to run FULL capacity (AMPS) all the time.
>  
> Battery size is for starting, not continual heavy loads.

-snip-
>