This is definitely not down to my imagination!

[worzel]

Hi all

Having owned a bog std sprint for 29 plus years I thought (wrongly) that it held no surprises. However- having recently converted to alternator there is a definite difference in cold running performance.

Before, during the first 4/500 yards after start-up there was a definite hesitation around 1800-2000 revs soon disappearing.


Since fitting the alternator this has disappeared completely (I've not touched anything else) and there is a noticeable difference in low speed pick up. Not quite of warp speed magnitude but the improvement can be felt.

Any ideas on this- I was always led to believe that ignition systems didn't need all that much "juice" to operate efficiently. Car is on lumenition.

John

[RotoFlexible]

I'll speculate. The alternator has better current capacity overall and particularly at low revs. Since you've just started the car, the battery draws some amps to get its charge back up. The rest of the car's wiring is showing its age so there are voltage drops here and there. With the age-of-steam generator, there was lower voltage to start with and less current to support what voltage there was across the creaky connectors. As a result, less voltage at the Lumenition box (which may like its full ration of volts). With the alternator - rock-solid voltage and plenty of current capacity to back it up, ergo, happy ignition.

I know that every electrical part of my car works better on the alternator than the old generator, especially now that the alternator is properly grounded.

[elansprint71]

Yes, happened for me too.

[Lincoln62]

Alternators produce smoke at a greater pressure than the old generator smoke and flows through the wires much faster. Hence increased performance.

Peter
66S2