Problem: I put four Hella spotlights and a couple little apex lights on my early 944 to do a 24-hour race, and turns out, that causes my 944 to eat alternators. I went through two in one race (although admittedly, the second one was weak, too), bleurgh. It sounds like there's some bigger wiring issues to deal with as well, but beyond that, is there a more powerful alternator I could install in the meantime that would get along with accessory lights better?

Hopefully something with a similar size and dimensions to the stock early 944 alternator? I also run the Lindsey Racing AC delete bracket on mine, so I'd rather not really have to modify that piece or have to track down an even harder to find belt for the alternator itself. Help!

 

 

A number of people here have installed alternators from 90s Nissan Quests. It's a later design with better cooling and good output (110A). You normally have to modify the mount, but in your case that wouldn't be necessary. .

 

Are you using relays for the auxiliary lights? Is everything well grounded? In addition to the above comments, you may want to look in to lights that draw less current. As an example, most LEDs draw less current.

 

 

It's the Porschelump.

If we do another full-24, we'll definitely be upgrading to LEDs instead of the spots, but I have to admit: the row of spots looks cool. I thought the lights were grounded correctly AFAIK, but a weird fault somewhere else in the wiring harness started to peg the temp gauge whenever they were on. Ugh. The lights are off for now as I think the car's just going to see daytime use, but I know I'll want to put them back on later. (I'm thinking about doing a scavenger-hunt-style road rally with the car, which would necessitate some kind of non-blinding lights up front.)

That higher-output rebuilt alternator seems like it might work. I know we were racing alongside a later 944 that had a way bigger alternator and no issues. Short of mail-ordering a rebuild, any idea if that later one would fit an early car?

 

I don't know the answer to any of your questions, but that race car looks sharp. I love the graphics

 

i want to say that a late alternator will fit on an early bracket.
you'd need to run a 5 rib belt on the late alternator, or swap your crank pulley to a 6-rib.

early vs late brackets were changed because the AC compressor was changed.

definitely need photos of the lights though..
cheap ebay LED light bars are incredibly powerful and use very little wattage.
i used a pair of 8" as primary headlights for a few years, mounted in the "grille" on my 951 bumper.

 

I put LED H4's into my VFR and found that the both of them used 1/3 the current of one H4. Great light output also. I saw that the tungsten bulbs were dimming a bit when the fans kicked on and figured it'd be good to reduce current draw.

 

As in Honda VFR? How is the beam spread compared to the halogen H4? Usually the ptoblem with LEDs in a housing intended for a halogen is the beam is an absolute mess.

 

Yes Honda VFR. I also have LED H4s in my 4runner. In the VFR the pattern seems fine, a lot depends on the design and layout of the LED bulbs and the housings.

My old 4runner has cheap aftermarket housings which had a poor beam pattern with tungsten bulbs. I tried the LEDs to mitigate this problem (and get more light) and the LEDs helped fill in some gaps bit, things are improved. I'm not sure if it'd be better or worse with factory housings. It's definitely a problem for some bulb and housing combinations. If you look at the LED H4s available though you'll see a huge variety of COB arrangements and whatnot so you can always try different ones. There are some 3 sided fanless ones out there now that look pretty interesting.

A race car would be able to use aux lights designed for LED though, that'd be more straightforward.