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A35 is probably a fair comparison. It's absolutely tiny! The back of the front seats is behind the b pillar, for example (making 3 point belts near impossible). Space inside is surprisingly ok due to a lack of anything at all that could be construed as superfluous.

Today has been semi-successful.

I accidentally booked the wrong day off work and instead of cancelling it decided to utilise it by playing with the car.

Here's how the morning started. Battery out, printout of a guide of how to bypass the voltage regulator thingy and a strong black coffee.



First thing to do was swap the wires around on the coil for the conversion to negative earth.

I cracked on from there and forgot to take pics. I used the existing dynamo mount for the new Suzuki Supercarry alternator and just had to trim down a little bolt on spacer and crudely made something to extend the adjuster. It lacks finesse but it works fine.


This is everything back together. Fortunately the battery leads were long enough that it didn't matter that the battery was spun around for my change to negative earth and there's nothing else that is sensitive to polarity in the car.



It all appears to be working. Ish.
Turning the ignition on, the light illuminates brightly as expected, then starting the engine it doesn't go out, but does go really dim. I used an old analogue multimeter as my digital one is getting a bit unreliable, and across the battery terminals it was reading just under 14 volts when running and less (a normal value. I can't remember exactly) when off. It's working, but that's a slightly low value.

The tension of the belt is fine, and I followed the guide successfully, but I'm wary of the fact that I'm running an alternator through 57 year old wiring, which where be where my 'missing' charge is escaping. I think the next step will be to redo all of the charging system's wiring and bin the now redundant regulator alltogether. I just need to figure out what all the wires to the regulator do ;D

I was about to PM you. Good work

What Damien posted above is basically the conclusion I came to when trying to line up the Volvo alternator. He's also been a huge help via PM on a couple other issues but I'll explain that stuff as and when it reaches fruition.

Googling 'small alternator conversion' and similar search terms came up with the usual suggestions

Daihatsu charade
Kubota tractors
SJ410/SJ413
Buy a 'race' one
modify a motorbike one

Using mostly eBay, I discovered that most of these went for more than I was prepared to pay, presumably because everyone who wanted a small alternator was searching the same things, and that I really couldn't be bothered with modifying a bike one.

Sleeperviva suggested an SJ one to me again on Facebook, and it led to me thinking on a slight tangent and searching for one from a Bedford Rascal or Suzuki Supercarry (same engine). Doing so scored me one for £27 delivered off of eBay and it arrived today. I had a quick look after work and chucked it approximately into place with just one bolt

It fits in the hole with room to adjust and use the same size belt. Excellent!





I'll need to cut up some scrap tube to space it properly and wire it in. At a glance, I thought it had been converted to negative earth but actually looking at it it clearly isn't the case! I need to check how this alternator is wired as it isn't the same as the standard Lucas or Bosch ones. It has a pair of spade connectors on the side and a wire coming off with a connector at the end. I reckon the pair both deliver my charge, the dangly wire is a signal light and it earths through its body. I won't work on assumption though! Diagrams for bypassing the regulator box are all over the internetz so that should be fine.




These were in the boot so I think I'll use them once I've painted the wheels in a colour that's a little less shouty. I gave them a VERY quick rub with some Autosol, but I can't say I'm too fussed about making them perfect, it was just to give them a bit of shine. Dents and blemishes add character



I noticed this the other day



I have no idea what the flappy flap is. But I had a look underneath...

...and decided to pretend I hadn't ;D

Although I was only on a short(ish) visit, I had an amazing time as ever and it's pushed my mojo right up to be back in an environment that's covered in oil and good mates. Looking forward to seeing the pics and videos emerge!

Garra, they're 14" though I can't remember the width (7" maybe?) and 4x4.5" PCD. Or 4x114.3 if you work in metric

The lathe isn't yet up and running as far as I know. I don't know if grunty can fit wheels in his lathe but I can vouch for the quality of his work and he's in Dursley. Worth sending a pm to

No photos because it started raining..

I had a rummage in the shed and turned up an alternator that I previously had on the Volvo. The only thing going for it is that it is a working alternator. Everything else is no good...

It's a Bosch job that is 'handed' but it's wrong handed and not the sort that you can rotate to mount the other way. The casing is large enough that it just fits in the available gap with no room for adjustment. Now I've got the dynamo out, it looks like I could cobble it in as a temporary measure to get it back up and running but ideally I need something smaller and that mounts the correct way round. The logical one that everyone uses is the Lucas ACR but it'll be a case of seeing what comes up cheap and shoving it in. The ideal would be one from a Kubota tractor or something, but everyone appears to have cottoned on that these are marvellously compact so cost more than the equivelant Bosch or Lucas one.

Evening,

After a (working ) alternator. Preferably a Lucas ACR but anything that uses the old standard 3 pin plug and has a v belt pulley would work fine