Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I'm considering going to the not inconsiderable expense of fitting a Dynalite alternator to my '66 S2. They now do these for positive earth systems so I can do so with minimal change from original. I'm intending to take the car touring in France later this year, maybe Italy next year and worry about inadequate charge rate with the original dynamo particularly if I end up in traffic with the rad fan running plus lights and wipers. As it is, with a fully charged battery and the lights on, when idling at traffic lights there is too much voltage drop for the direction indicator relay to work - and yes, I've checked the indicator circuit for resistance and poor earthing and it all seems ok.

Has anyone fitted a Dynalite and if so any comments? Any other comments on my thoughts guys?

Vernon

Hello,
I had the same problems until I changed to the dynalite, in November 2008.
In my opinion the fault lied in the dynamo, which was quite old and out of shape.

I had to take the dynalite way, because in Germany the historic plate requires the car to be quite original. Any changes to it are reason for revocation of the historic plate, so the alternator had to be camuflaged, which the dynaliet does perfectly, and BTW weights much less than the dynamo.

Just one comment: the front bold has to be tight, and it is quite special.
Mine was tight, but not enough and flew off in to the middle of the French autoroute, unrecoverable. Rallydesign sent me another one without charge, nice.

Last year the alternator did only 1/3 of its capacity, and was repaired for 130 UKP + shipping. No warranty considerations, which I found not nice from Eurolec, having covered only 2.000 miles in two years.

Otherwise, everything is fine, fitting is easy. The alternator does not need the voltage regulator, but I left it and made the required changes within the voltage regulator box, so externally you wont see any changes.

Regards

Guillermo

I really can't see the point of Dynalite. Why not just install an alternator? You can get a Lucas that will bolt in quite cheap. Even the Denso type very lightweight alternators are cheaper than the Dynalite and, I would think, more in keeping with the constant improvement changes that Lotus made during production. Lotus fit alternators to later cars so unless there's a reason such as a legal one above, I wouldn't bother with a Dynalite. I've better ways to spend the extra money!
I don't want to change the character of my car but I certainly have no qualms about making it safer or more reliable. Just my opinion.

Very many thanks to you both.

I'm a bit concerned to hear of Guillermo's reliability problems with Dynalite, for that money it should be fit and forget!

Changing to a standard alternator is not so easy because my car is positive earth and all standard alternators are negative earth. I could swop the polarity of the car, but that means spending on internal rewiring of the tacho (which is, in addition, inscribed 'Positive earth' on the face) which is more departure from original. Alternatively I can get a conventional alternator and have it changed to positive earth, but that also costs. These options will only cost half as much as a Dynalite however so maybe....

Regards

Vernon

John

Very many thanks for your e-mail. Great to have your recommendation for the Dynalite. I think I'm going to go ahead despite the cost, the underbonnet appearance on my car is very original and it seems a great shame to spoil it. And I do need the extra generating power to use the car properly.

Regards
Vernon