how many lights can i run from a EA82 altenator

Milla · Post by **Milla** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:41 pm

After lookin at the lighting on some of the offroaders out there, i really need to get some spotties put on. I got the old boy to pick up a couple of reverse lights from a haul pack up north and they go all right, but i want more vision for the trip up top exmouth.

Can i run 4 100w lights off the altenator or not enough power?

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 7:57 pm

Alternator is rated for 60A

100w lights draw a maximum of ( P/V = I) 100/14.4 = 6.9A

Ya looking at 7 amps per light. You couldnt safely run more than 6 100W lights (52A), thats providing the alternator isnt supplying any other loads like engine or battery charging and factory fitted lights.

I personally wouldnt put any more than 4. Thats still pulling a hefty 28A, which almost half the alternators rated capacity

jsubie · Post by **jsubie** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:03 pm

Here in S.A. its illegal to have more than six lights

Milla · Post by **Milla** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:30 pm

Suparoo wrote:
I personally wouldnt put any more than 4. Thats still pulling a hefty 28A, which almost half the alternators rated capacity

so those 4 spotties on ur l series run fine no probs, and no battery worries either

brendan · Post by **brendan** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:19 pm

Yeah im pretty sure its same in WA, your allowed 6 forward facing lights.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:24 pm

Yeah i had no troubles, i only have 2 now (damn wallabies that are feeding on grass in the centre of the road at 6:00 in the morning)

When idling and i switched the 4 lights on, the revs dropped a few hundred revs and all dash lights ect dimmed, but while driving, no worries.

Post by **Alex** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:31 am

i think youll find L-series alternators are less than 60amps. I went through 4 or 5 of them with the old ea82. i was running 4x100watt spotties, and a VERY large stereo. Just be careful as u dont want your alternator to **** itself when your in exmouth.

alex

Milla · Post by **Milla** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:34 pm

cheers guys, so im now thinkin might just be better to get 2 wicked spotties. they need to be rectangular coz the big circles will be obstructed by the top bar on the roo bar.

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:26 pm

You could always increase the alternator capacity and run the spotties... trouble would be finding an alternator you're happy with that has the capacity... A mate of mine ran a 130amp alternator that was apparently from a tractor (i'm not sure about that but its how the story went) to power his stereo, it was the only reason for the upgrade...

Bennie

D3V1L · Post by **D3V1L** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:37 pm

i ran at 1 stage 4 on the front bumper bar and 4 on the roof....but it was overkill...the laternator was struggling and at times especially at idle it would suck from the battery rather then the alternator

dave

phillatdarwin · Post by **phillatdarwin** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:44 pm

get a up grade to a 120amp and u can run 6x100wate as i did all is well

tony · Post by **tony** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:12 am

doesn't the Falcon or something bolt pretty well straight on? I am sure I read that on here somewhere. Anyway they are a standard sort of alternator get one off a late model big jap car.
Also when thinking of the load remember the ignition and injection (if you have EFI) and the air con and the other lights are all running so they can add up. The manufacturer is not going to put in one more amp of capacity than he thinks the car needs. The alternator is probably working pretty hard anyway.

Gannon · Post by **Gannon** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:15 am

The alternator from a SOHC V6 maxima from 86 to 94 bolts pretty much straight in. As long as it has a serpentine pulley, it should be the one you want

Taken from USMB, written by GD

Picked this up from an '87 Maxima at the yard today - these are 90 amp units. It's a Bosch reman (which I've had good luck with) - the Maxima had 282,000 miles on it . I swear if I didn't care about 4WD/AWD I would totally rock one. Loved the talking digi-dash last time I rode in one.... I digress.

This pulley has got to go....

I pulled it off with my cordless impact (120 ft/lbs). They aren't tight.

Looked through my box of alternators and parts and after trying a couple pulleys I found the fit I wanted in the EA82 twin-groove pulley. These are very common on EA82's with air conditioning. There needs to be a spacer behind it to space it out from the shaft's drive-end bearing race so it doesn't contact the case. The maxima alt has a pulley with a built-in spacer so you have to use the spacer that comes with the EA82 pulley. Unfortunately it's too thick. I rectified this easily by clamping it in a pair of vice-grips and running it against a belt sander. I then cleaned it up with a draw-file and lapped it as flat as I could with a peice of glass and some 120 grit sand-paper. It's slightly less than 3/8" thick now. I took off about 1/8" of material.

Here's the setup I used (before I modified the spacer):

And here's the spacer next to a stock one:

At this point I was all ready to get to work on the wireing. I'm not a hack-wireing kind of guy so I was about to pull out the soldering iron & heat shrink to install the Maxima's deutsch style plug...... then I realized that this isn't neccesary. In fact NO modifications to the vehicle wiring are neccesary other than removing the female spade connectors from the white plastic plug they are installed in. The Maxima alt has two male spade terminals inside the deutsch connector - the stock female spade's on the harness slip right on . Even the Maxima's wireing was the same color and size. It was obvious what went where:

Put the belt back on and fired it up. I got lucky at the yard - the dirty thing even works!

And the output was excelent from the VR:

Probably the easiest, quickest swap I've come across. WAY simpler than the GM and XT6 conversions (I've done both - XT6 requires shims on the mounting ears and I had to turn a spacer on the lathe for the pulley - GM required mount changes and wireing). And in fact it is 100% reversible since all you would need to do is reinstall the plastic plug over the spade terminals and bolt the old unit back in.

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:15 am

Alternators are rated as a maximum, not a constant. So a 60amp alt shouldn't be used to supply 60amps for periods of time. They need rest time every few minutes.
Get a set of Narva 220mm bull lamps, $99 ea and you'll only ever need two extra lights haha.