Upgrade System

Has anyone upgraded to 12 volt with a high output alternator,A/C and a sound system? We're also going to add Woodward Gauges,new wiring harness, trying to make this as painless as possible.We're still waiting on the Cab to come back from the body shop. I've been informed that the wide v belt may not be up to the task. I'm out of my league here, Help if you can! Thanks,Sandusky. We've been considering turning down the crankshaft and water pump pulleys and adding a narrower automotive pulley,at this time well be able to line up the water pump and crankshaft pulleys as we've noticed they're out of alignment .

Why wouldn't the wide belt be any good? Seems to me it would have more holding ability than the narrow belt becuase of a larger surface area.

For what it's worth, I bought a 65A Delco 10SI alternator with a 3/4" pulley. Seems it outta be enough to run A/C, tunes, and other stuff OK.

We've been considering turning down the crankshaft and water pump pulleys and adding a narrower automotive pulley,at this time well be able to line up the water pump and crankshaft pulleys as we've noticed they're out of alignment .

if you have a stock SD motor, some of the water pumps that bolt up had different length output shafts for some reason, maybe difference between SD, BD and BG motors?

probably can get the right pump for it, and you can change out the skinny pulley of the alternator with one off a gen. or run a skinny belt in the wide pulley.

Thanks, I talked to Speedway they sell a 5/8pulley for a A/C Delco alternator also found a adjustable pulley that will work with my new a/c system it goes out to 3/4 Soooo I might be okay .I wasn't a looking forward to machining the crank pulley and fan pulley down and rebuilding them with 3/8 automotive pulleys.thanks oh yes we have a stock sd220 so ill have to check shaft length it looks like our water pump is about 1/8" long ,or at least the pulley is 1/8" out of alignment.

If we've got room. I'm thinking a little bit ahead here or maybe over thinking , I was wondering if it gets to busy on the gen./ alternator side of the engine,I could mount another pulley on the existing crankshaft pulley it's got 2 holes that are tapped and was thinking I could make use of them for mounting another pulley to drive the compressor, might have to put some standoffs to make it stable enough that way we could move the compressor anywhere we wanted without to many short runs. Just thinking out loud. Thanks for everyones input.

Thanks, I talked to Speedway they sell a 5/8pulley for a A/C Delco alternator also found a adjustable pulley that will work with my new a/c system it goes out to 3/4 Soooo I might be okay .I wasn't a looking forward to machining the crank pulley and fan pulley down and rebuilding them with 3/8 automotive pulleys.thanks oh yes we have a stock sd220 so ill have to check shaft length it looks like our water pump is about 1/8" long ,or at least the pulley is 1/8" out of alignment.

true confession on how I know this,

I got a replacement water pump for my SD-220 a long time ago, 20+ yrs. and it was the slightly shorter shaft,

no problem says I, I'll just put washers between the pulley assembly and the end of the pump, bolt the fan on.

well, that lasted for a few thousand miles, then one day the whole pulley assembly shattered and threw the fan into the radiator,

fortunately I had everything to replace it all with, got the right pump, and no more problems.

Wow! Ill take care of the water pump! Oh by the way in a previous post I was applauding the great way that we had our cab stripped,baked in an oven acid dipped then neutralized. Well she's ready for paint, all wet sanded and now were seeing a continued lifting of the primer.Man do I feel Stupid. Looks like we're going to take her and have her media blasted ,like we should of in the first place. What was it that Gump said" Stupid is as Stupid Does"

Addding additional belt driven accessories after the fact can be a challenge. Custom mounts will need to be purchased or made. The water pump hose is an obstacle on the Distributor side of the engine. Looks to be room above the generator for an AC pump on the exhaust side of the engine. Because of the front engine mount...keeping pulleys in line will be a challenge. If someone has a pic of a set up with an AC compressor and pwr steering options I'd love to see those. While I don't plan to add those accessories, it's nice to see what can be done if so desired.

For what it's worth, I bought a 65A Delco 10SI alternator with a 3/4" pulley. Seems it outta be enough to run A/C, tunes, and other stuff OK.

Is there a min size Alternator for the 12V upgrade. Is 65A the minimum one should buy?

You need to figure the draw of your electrical consumers (Amps= watts/volts). I'm figuring my truck at full tilt may pull about 50amps with all the gadgets going full bore (minus the starter of course). That's high and low beams, fogs, markers, flashers, radio, heater, and wipers. I will still have about 25% extra capacity with a 65amp alt. Since my headlights wont light both filaments at the same time (dimmer switch wont allow it) i've got about another 10amp cushion on top of that 25%. Guess i can drive down the road blaring the horn now too- haha. The 10si body alt can be had in current outputs from as little as 30-35amps to outputs north of 100amps.

Unless you're installing massive amps to go with your stereo or youre going to light it up like a christmas tree I'd imagine a 65-85amp alt will be more than sufficient to run your truck and top off the battery as needed.

This is all good knowledge! and Very much appreciated. A wealth of tech.expertise, along with some good old "Horse Sense" thrown in for good measure. Thanks Looking like we will probably be mounting the compressor to the exhaust side as stated above, unless we can figure a way to snake the lower rad. hose out of the way with out causing to much trouble.I'd think after the above calculations a 65 amp alternator should be sufficient. Thanks again.