Hi folks -- I need a little advice.
I'm going to try and improve my life a tad.
I've got a 100A Balmar alternator (912-100D) mounted on a Perkins 4-108M. The only recurring complaint I've had with this set up is that in order to adjust the belt tension, I've got to get behind the face of the alternator with a 9/16 wrench to loosen the lock/dog bolt (being very careful not to short the wrench from the block to one of the positive output studs.) Not as difficult as some other access challenges, but aggravating all the same. I'd live with it, but now...
The swing arm of the alternator bracket has finally chaffed through the coolant crossover pipe (it takes the freshwater from the starboard side of the block across the front of the engine and up to the heat exchanger/exhaust manifold.) That's going out for repair.
My latest brain fart is that a turnbuckle equipped with rod ends would make adjustment easier and probably eliminate my chafe issues. This is sort of a common fix in the automotive realm, and a couple of places include the turnbuckles as part of a retrofit kit. I'd like to avoid buying a six part kit when I only need the turnbuckle part.
So, my questions:
Can anyone give me an idea of how beefy I need to go to make this set-up work?
How much of a load on the turnbuckle are we talking about here?
Any suggestions from those who may have done this themselves?
I'm going to try and improve my life a tad.
I've got a 100A Balmar alternator (912-100D) mounted on a Perkins 4-108M. The only recurring complaint I've had with this set up is that in order to adjust the belt tension, I've got to get behind the face of the alternator with a 9/16 wrench to loosen the lock/dog bolt (being very careful not to short the wrench from the block to one of the positive output studs.) Not as difficult as some other access challenges, but aggravating all the same. I'd live with it, but now...
The swing arm of the alternator bracket has finally chaffed through the coolant crossover pipe (it takes the freshwater from the starboard side of the block across the front of the engine and up to the heat exchanger/exhaust manifold.) That's going out for repair.
My latest brain fart is that a turnbuckle equipped with rod ends would make adjustment easier and probably eliminate my chafe issues. This is sort of a common fix in the automotive realm, and a couple of places include the turnbuckles as part of a retrofit kit. I'd like to avoid buying a six part kit when I only need the turnbuckle part.
So, my questions:
Can anyone give me an idea of how beefy I need to go to make this set-up work?
How much of a load on the turnbuckle are we talking about here?
Any suggestions from those who may have done this themselves?
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