Any Aircooled VW guys here?

My cousin's husband has a really nice Type 2 Bus that he got restored and it has been converted over to 12V.

He's been driving it for several months now and he is continually having problems with the Generator. The first issue was that the pulley kept popping off. He took it back and they thought it could use a new pulley, so they installed one, but it also kept popping off. So, he decided to order a new generator (not sure if it was actually new or remaned) from a "popular" VW parts website.

Now he's got the new one installed and it unfortunately has failed. It's now only generating 1.2 volts.

Because of my experiences with Generator failure, my question to the VW guys is: Now that the system has been converted to 12V, is there an alternator that can replace the generator? I know the Generator is a part of the fan, but does somebody make a direct fit alternator?

I don't know a ton about Aircooled VWs, but I would suspect there is a conversion of some sort.

Here's the Type 2 I am speaking of:

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ACC-C10-5750-KT

I think something like this should work.

pretty Type 2. It should be basically a Type 1 engine, so the alternator should bolt right in

In reply to rustyvw:

Ok, cool, thanks. I'm going to pass this on to him, he will be happy. He just sounded so down in the dumps about it today when I asked how it was.

These guys have it covered, but I just had to come by and shed a tear...

...my first car was a '66 Type 2. (sigh...)

Still the love of my life.

Note that in zombie apocalypse terms, the generator is a superior choice, as it will produce current without a starting current. You can actually push start an old VW with a completely junk battery.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

Yeah, he just want's something reliable. I don't think he wants to be push starting his Bus all the time.

I want to know why this is happening? I mean, VW buses were not known to be fragile.

I'm surprised that no one has suggested a bat van replica

Pulley popping off? Just a guess, but that sounds like incorrect belt tension. (Too tight) You need some shims between the pulley halves and the rest of them stored behind the pulley. (I don't remember how many goes where...) Was the new generator polarized (I think that is the term..) when installed? Otherwise a generator is box of rocks simple. Get the How to keep you VW alive book. Always a good read and has plenty of good info.

In reply to noddaz:

Well he took it back to the guy who does VW restorations for a living. So when the first fix didn't fix it and it popped off again, they just replaced the whole thing because I think he thought the shaft on the generator was worn.

The second generator worked for a couple months then stopped producing juice.

I don't own it, I just got information from the guy who does and isn't a "fix his own car" type of person, so there was a lot of translation going on.

He's going to see the VW mechanic this week and I told him to ask the mechanics opinion on an alternator.

1973-9 Beetle alternator should bolt right on, but you'll need the alternator stand, too. Oh, and be sure to do away with the voltage regulator, as the later air cooled alternators are internally regulated. I may even have the parts, but I need a day or so to look for them

Was a 12V generator installed with the change ? curious. Nothing to do with the pulley falling off. There is some difficulty getting proper torque on the nut.

iceracer wrote: There is some difficulty getting proper torque on the nut.

There shouldn't be, the pulley will have a notch cut in it so you can use a prybar or large screwdriver to stop it from turning while you torque it down.

airwerks wrote:

iceracer wrote: There is some difficulty getting proper torque on the nut.

There shouldn't be, the pulley will have a notch cut in it so you can use a prybar or large screwdriver to stop it from turning while you torque it down.

Yes indeedy...

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to Kenny_McCormic: Yeah, he just want's something reliable. I don't think he wants to be push starting his Bus all the time.

Bwahahahahahaha...That's some funny E36 M3 there...a reliable German vehicle! You guys just crack me up...

Before you go too far (and I assume his mechanic will check) but make sure the regulator is still good. These use an external regulator and if it was working for a few months then just quit I'd be looking for other things before blaming the generator.

Alternators aren't really that big of an improvement on these, I'd stick with the gen unless he's running big stereos, tvs or something else silly.

Of course I'll happily trade him for....well damn near any car I own.

In reply to JThw8:

That's why I told him to talk to the VW mechanic first. I don't know VWs, so I gave him my opinion.

I don't think generators are bad, especially for a 6-Volt system. But for a 12-Volt system, I prefer an alternator.

Just a thought, but I had a problem in my beetle with the brushes not touching the rotor. It might be something worth looking at. All it took was taking the dust cover off and pushing in on the brush to fix it for a while longer.

noddaz wrote: Pulley popping off? Just a guess, but that sounds like incorrect belt tension. (Too tight) You need some shims between the pulley halves and the rest of them stored behind the pulley.

I thought they were stored between the Nut and the Pulley?

Voltage regulator is the first thing to check.

But I will say a lot of the VW stuff that is getting produced now is just utter crap in terms of quality. So having the new one go out pretty quickly is par for the course.

In reply to mad_machine:

This is correct, don't put them behind the pulley.