Alternator for MF65

Potatoe Eater

Does anyone know which car alternator will fit a MF 65. Would I be right in saying its from a ford car ? I was told that a fitted alternator is better than the original dynamo. Help would be appreciated.

marlyman

Stick with the dynamo. It's better for the battery. If you want an alternator your looking for a lucan lra100.

Potatoe Eater wrote: »

Does anyone know which car alternator will fit a MF 65. Would I be right in saying its from a ford car ? I was told that a fitted alternator is better than the original dynamo. Help would be appreciated.

Kevin McCloud

marlyman wrote: »

Stick with the dynamo. It's better for the battery.

Is it because the dynamo produces less current or other reasons?

TheBody

An alternator in a great job but you can't just swap them with a dynamo. There is some re wiring to be done first.

kay 9

You'll also need to change the pulley. Some dynamos are hard to align properly

dooroy

Have fitted a few alternators in place of dynamos - and did the same on cars years ago .
The alternator I use is what used to be known as a Lucas 17 ACR for example .
You only need 2 wires coming from the alternator - a heavy gauge one to the battery (or battery lead on starter) and a light gauge wire to the warning light .

If there is an auto electrician around your area he should be able to supply the alternator and suitable warning light .

Lining up the pulleys can take time - you have to make sure the belt is running straight .

Don't know where you live but the last one I did the owner got an alternator and bracket from a guy who repairs tractors (can get details if you want ).
You remove the dynamo and its bracket and replace with supplied bracket , then fit alternator and pulleys should line up. Saves a lot of time .

marlyman

It's because an alternator cuts in and out as charge falls and recharges. A dynamo is always trickling a small bit of charge even when the battery is full. It's better conditioning for the battery, I suppose you could say.

Kevin McCloud wrote: »

Is it because the dynamo produces less current or other reasons?

dooroy

I had cars run with dynamos - and on changing to alternator it didn't have any bad effect on the battery .
With the dynamo you also had a regulator ( hidden up under the dash usually in a tractor) and over time these go out of adjustment and I have often found that dynamo systems are just managing to put off the charge light but putting very little charge into the battery even when revved .
If a tractor was started a few times with little running time in between then you could have a problem . People often then blame the battery - new battery doesn't solve the problem though . So then maybe turn to the starter ???
All the time the dynamo (or regulator ) causing the problem .
Fit new dynamo - still have problems , because the regulator is at fault .
Also dynamos output depends on revs - and often tractors are not at a high enough rev to give good output .
The alternator gives good output at low revs and any of those I converted the owners have been very happy with them .

marlyman

Each to their own I suppose. I checked the dates of the batteries on all 6 tractors I have. The youngest is an 8 year old yuasa . The oldest is 12 Year old exIde. Exide used to make the best battery ever for a tractor. Pity.

Man of Aran

dooroy wrote: »

Have fitted a few alternators in place of dynamos - and did the same on cars years ago .
The alternator I use is what used to be known as a Lucas 17 ACR for example .
You only need 2 wires coming from the alternator - a heavy gauge one to the battery (or battery lead on starter) and a light gauge wire to the warning light .

If there is an auto electrician around your area he should be able to supply the alternator and suitable warning light .

Lining up the pulleys can take time - you have to make sure the belt is running straight .

Don't know where you live but the last one I did the owner got an alternator and bracket from a guy who repairs tractors (can get details if you want ).
You remove the dynamo and its bracket and replace with supplied bracket , then fit alternator and pulleys should line up. Saves a lot of time .

Some of thise earlier Fergusons were Positive + earthing return on chassis AFAIK.
Would be interested to know procedure you follow with retrofitting those Lucas ACR of more typical Negative earth design. Convert the alternator & diode packs to + earth to suit tractor or reconfigure the whole chassis to negative?

dooroy

Yes some early ones were positive earth and as you say the alternator was for a negative earth system.
As far as I can remember I just swapped the battery leads - probably had to change terminals as the pos is usually bigger than the negative .
I would have to check up on this to be sure thats all - but there were no changes to the alternator .