The National Voltage Star

Easy, they are bought from my competitors, O.K. that was too easy and I could not resist. The fact is there is many reasons why a high amp alternator would fail, but just like a non high amp alternator it comes down to one reason. HEAT! A high amp alternator generates heat in how it functions, manage the heat and you will have a alternator that will last much longer. Let step back and go over what makes a high amp alternator produce more power than a normal alternator.Lets have a quick how does it work session. All alternators have a rotor, the part that connects to the pulley and spins inside the stator. The stator holds the wire windings that you can see from the outside. Together the rotor and stator produce the power in ac voltage then the rectifier converts the power to dc voltage. The process is controlled by the regulator.An alternator is basically 3 parts, generation, control, and output. To make a high amp alternator you need heavy duty windings and a lot of steel in the rotor, a tight air gap between the rotor and stator, a lot of iron in the stator core and the correct size wire, and the correct winding pattern or the wire  in the stator. Get it right and you have a high amp alternator. Providing you have a rectifier that can handle the power and a regulator that can control the power, and providing the alternator is matched to the power needs of the vehicle you will should see many years of service.Now this process generates heat because of this we need a fans to cool the alternator down, most high amp alternator have one in the front to cool the stator / rotor and one in the rear to cool the regulator and rectifier as well as help cool the stator. Now one of the reasons why our SPL-comp high amp alternators are so durable is remove the regulator and rectifier from the alternator, so you now have 2 fans cooling the stator and rotor only. This is important because the heat of the stator can damage the regulator and rectifier or at least shorten the their life.Now another great feature of our SPL-Comp high amp alternators is our heat reducing process. A lot of it is top secret but it involves cryogenics and heat treatment followed by a heat dissipating coating. The heat reducing coating works very well on its own and can be ordered for any alternator. The company that handles our heat reducing coating is Stanley Distribution and you can check them out by clicking the link.So here is a typical situation, you start the engine on a hot day, before the alternator has a chance to stabilize the battery, you crank up the system. Now the alternator must charge the battery that has been drained by the starter as well as power the stereo, so it goes to at or near full power. This causes the alternator to run hot, since it is hot outside the under hood temps are very high. Now most stock alternators have an ability to tun off the power until it cools down, it’s a way of limping you home or to the shop, most high amp alternators don’t have this so it will keep the power up, too much of this and the alternator will fail.The thing that most, if not all of our competitors don’t understand or don’t care about is this, an alternator case the final chance to dissipate the heat. If alternator-man tells you he can build you a 200 amp stock case Honda or Toyota alternator he is lying about the amperage the alternator has or you will be replacing it every 6 months or more. It just cant dissipate that much heat, even a large case Denso will just barely handle the heat produced by that much amperage. The fact is even if you spent more money than the national debt for you magical “one-of” super custom alternator tester you will not make a case that is too small dissipate heat.Now here is how an alternator dies, first the long term slow death them the catastrophic quick death. The slow death is normally 6 months to 2 years and the quick death is 3 weeks to 6 months and in some cases the second you start the engine you will know you have a problemIn a slow death repeated heating and cooling will take a toll on the regulator, the bearings, and the diodes in the rectifier. When the regulator finally gives up you will get no output, the bearing will cause noise and extra heat with will cause a catastrophic failure. The diodes will fail one at a time, there are 3 phases in the stator so there are two diodes for each phase, one positive and one negative. If one of the diodes fail you will loose one phase and that is why you have the strobe light effect in your headlights and dash lights. If you see this replace the alternator fast, its on its last leg, now you can see this damage by looking at the stator, if you see that some of the wires are black and look burned and the other look red or copper, then you have burned out one phase of the stator.A typical catastrophic failure will go something like this. The alternator will superheat which is anything above 275 degrees. The stator will expand and the air gap between the rotor and stator will increase, this will cause the field to collapse. As this happens you will see the voltage drop down to nothing. Do this once and you have forever changed the air gap and it will never be the same. Now there are wood and plastic inserts that protect the stator winding they will warp or melt. Once the stator contacts the iron core in the center it is all over.So save your self some money and time, call Rush Power Systems first!