The alternative alternator
As all original B GT V8's, my car was also fitted with a Delco alternator. By the looks of it, it had been refurbed before I bought the car. But hey, things wear, so the old Delco needed some tlc again.
A telltale sign of the alternator giving up on you is the red ignition light flickering or not wanting to come on when you start the car. Actually this is a sign that the diodes have gone. Anyway, having experienced these problems, I took my Delco to Relonstar (opposite of Sportsworld Leerdam). When I got my Delco back, all seemed to work just fine. Until four months later the same problems returned.
This time I took the Delco to a different company: Van Elteren in Culemborg. He took it apart while I was watching, and it wasn't a pretty sight. The whole core was more or less burned. No way a set of brushes, some grease and bearings were going to fix this one!
But then what? No breaker yard nearby, and cheap British spares are not readily available in The Netherlands. So we've been looking into new alternators that could replace the Delco. An additional problem was the clearance between the alternator and the rocker cover, as well as my desire to get more output. Plus of course I wanted to stick to the original bracket. There was a solution: the Iskra alternator. The code on the side reads: "ISKRA AAK 4597 14V 70A 11.201811". The 11.201811 is already the new part number for 2003.
I added some pics to show how well it fits. Be aware however that in other countries different solutions to the same problem might exist.
This alternator is a 70 A model. The last picture shows that the wiring cannot be attached in the way the Delco had it. Small eyelets had to be crimped on, because the alternator is slightly longer than the Delco.
If you're interested, the Iskra is available worldwide; search the www, maybe www.iskra.com will help you out. If you can't find an outlet near to you, contact me on f_de_groot@zonnet.nl.