Datsunstore's 105 amp GM P&P gets my vote, hands down.

Jim

 

I've had the 105 amp unit installed for a year now, and have no complaints, brown outs or issues with my battery.

 

i actually have the same question. i believe i am going to just use a good cap and the 60 amp zx alternator. alternators for me dont last long. i went through 4 in two years with my miata with no stereo and three in one year with my infiniti with a big stereo. my logic is when(not if) i break it i can simply go down to autozone and they will replace it for free. $70 for a zx alt with a lifetime waranty means i pay $70 and i can break it as many times as i want.

 

I have the '85 Maxima upgrade in my '78 and it has been working great for many years. My old alternator was shot, so it made sense to upgrade since I heard nothing but bad things about the auto parts store rebuilds. I got it through an alternator shop, so I knew it would be much higher quality than a chain store unit.

That said, last fall, I built an old, crusty 260Z for 24 Hours of LeMons racing. The alternator on the car was shot and there is no budget for good stuff, so I dug several old 50 amp alternators out of my basement parts stash and had them checked at a parts store. One was dead, one worked but had a bent shaft and one checked out fine, so I used that unit. The race was a true 24 hour event with 12 hours in the dark, so it needed not only high powered lighting, but lots of it. I got a pair of Autopal H4 lights from our buddy H4Lights, and mounted a second set of Hella 500 H4 lights on the hood. Since the race was in Ohio in October, rain was likely and sure enough, it came in buckets! I not only had to have good lights, but fast wipers, and a powerful defroster. I wired the lights through relays and wired the wipers and blower fan to each only work on high speed.

Surprisingly, even at idle, I had tons of electrical power. The lights were bright, the wipers were fast (I did lube the linkages), and the fan cranked away. The alternator lasted throughout the race and still works great.

I now truely believe that most Z electrical problems have nothing to do with lack of alternator output and everything to do with 30+ year old wiring, connectors, and switches. I rewired most of the car using all 12ga wire with a new blade-style fusebox, new heavy duty switches and relays for each pair of lights. I have never had such bright lights or Z windshield wipers that worked so well. My '78 lights and wipers are a joke compared to my $500 crapcan 260Z with $30 worth of wiring and relays.

For the OP, if your current alternator works, keep it and upgrade the car's wiring. If it doesn't work, I'd suggest finding a local alternator/starter shop and either get your's rebuilt, or get a Maxima unit which will put out 90-100 amps. After seeing how well my 260 does with 50amps, I can't see where you need much more than that.

When I have time, I will upgrade my '78's headlight system with relays and new heavy wiring.

 

I got rid of my brown outs by putting on a headlight relay upgrade that MSA sells, but got mine form the original maker.

Bonzi Lon

 

ok. so new wiring helps, got it. i still believe that the op and myself will need a higher than stock output alternator. i have an e12-80 and plan to go with a msd 6a ignition, that along with the stereo, 4 speakers, amp and two subs will draw much more than 40 amps.

 

That's exactly what I thought about my lights brettsdad08, but once I did the math, I was below 50amps with everything on. A 200 watt stereo amp is only drawing 14 amps at full volume. I was running close to 300 watts worth of lighting alone. The lights were as bright at idle as they were at speed.

Like I said, you might need more output, but you *might* not. Do the math and determine what you really need before you spend a lot of money and time upgrading.

 

Thanks for the input.

I probably do need to do some basic cleaning to my wiring, but I still will need a better alternator. My current alternator is going bad anyway. I think cleaning the headlight combination switch, running a better harness to the headlights, and a better alternator is the solution. After doing some more research, it is a lot cheaper to just by the $20 plug adapter from MSA and buying a ZX alternator from my local autoparts store. It's only $50 bucks for the alternator from Autozone.

As far as the Datsun Restore kit, That may be overkill, and I'm afraid it will rob some HP, you know like having the AC on. Datsun Restore claims it will produce 50 amps at idle, that has to be a lot more drag on the crankshaft than the stock alternator.

I think I'll spend the extra money that the Datsun Restore kit would have cost on getting some H4 headlamps and harness.

 

how can you find out how many amps different things draw? like, h4's draw more than stock but how much more? plus my amp makes 954 watts x2 at 2 ohms rms and peaks at 1600 watts. how much would that draw? it has a 100 amp fuse if that means anything.

 

Cannonball,
Do a search to find out how many people have done the autozone/napa/rock auto/other alternator cheaper here thing and ended up with failure after failure, problems. There are many who just save the time, aggrivation and money of constant failures and just get the one Zman sells straight off.
Yes more money upfront. But no tow charges, boost charges, troubleshooting costs (it's a new alternator. That can't be the problem!) and time to do all of this.

 

Yeah thanks Easyguy. I didn't realize they were such garbage. I guess I should suck it up and get the Datsun Restore unit.

I do have a birthday coming up... wonder if the Grandparents would want to get me some goodies for the Z...

 

And in answer to Brettsdads question: A=W/V

A=Amps W=Watts V=Volts

 

Keep in mind that the car runs around 13.5V, not 12V when you calculate.