Mondial 3.2 alternator upgrade...suggestions?

Here's one for Mondial owners with some experience of electrical gremlins....in other words, all of us!

My local servicing agent has traced an electrical problem back to the alternator, and I am not entirely sure if this is correct or not. I have checked the archives, old and new, and can't find anything that directly relates to this, so here goes:

The car is a 3.2 Mondial Cab, 1986 model. I imported it from Italy to Dubai last year and it's in good condition, with major service done 5k ago.

The alternator is, in fact, fine. I took it to the Bosch service centre, they put it up on the testing rig and it is putting out 80-85A at rpm 3,500. Voltage is 13.5V - this all seemed fine to them and they gave it a clean bill of health.

The service agents are saying that, because it is so hot here (never less than 23 degrees, upto 45 in summer), the AC is on max all the time and the engine fans are always on, so there is a large draw of current and maybe the alternator's output isn't sufficient (at 80-85A) to support these accessories and re-charge the battery. So, they suggest that, instead of putting this one back in the car, I consider upgrading the output to 120A.

I'm not entirely convinced, because:
- never heard of this with other Mondials
- while it is hot here in summer, Italy can be too! and surely if Ferrari build a car with AC and engine fans, the elec system can support it (or maybe not)
- never entirely convinced of local diagnostic procedure.

For info, our journeys in the car are usually at least 40 minutes every weekend, minimum. We spend a lot of the time above 3,500 rpm so I don't think excessive idling is a problem.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Btw, thanks to Tom B for introduction to Dean Romer at Wide World of Cars, who sent plastic block connectors for burnt fuse box back in May.

Robin Wells
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

 

Dave

The symptoms were that the car didn't start!

One day, after a good journey, I turned the ign switch and nothing. No dash lights, no cranking, nothing. Thinking I had maybe just not turned the key correctly, I did it again and it starts no problem.

Conclusion - short term memory loss or intermittment ign sw fault.

Then next weekend, I go to start the car and had the same symptoms - only this time, it continued to remain dead.

I had other stuff to fix and I was working on replacing the fuse board, so this fault kind-of merged into another....not very helpful for diagnosis I know!

Having replaced the battery with a charged one as part of the on-going fault-finding, the accessories were working OK, radio lights etc, but there was no cranking - nothing at all. So I took it into the garage suspecting an ignition switch fault.

Having done their diagnosis, they are saying that the ignition sw is fine, but the problem is that there is simply too much drain on the elec system because I have so much elec stuff runinng at the same time (all standard I must add, no big sound system) - and therefore they recommend I replace the standard 85A alternator with an upgraded one.

Yes...OK... I can understand their logic, but is this really the problem? I'm thinking I'll just put the stock alternator back in, and then put the car on a trickle charger overnight instead.

What do you think?

 

Just looked at the handbook of my SAAB 93, my regular car, to get a different perspective.

For models fitted without AC (northern Europe, I presume), the alternator is 80A.

For those models fitted with AC (definitely us in the Middle East), the alternator is a massive 130A.

What a difference. Does the Air Con really consume that much power?

So, for those who have done this upgrade on 328/3.2 Mondials (atlantaman) where should I start? No-one I spoke to here seemed interested/capable of doing the re-wiring job, so any recommendations from places in the US/Europe who could ship something out to the Middle East - maybe just an upgraded core if the whole frame is too heavy?

In the meantime, I've asked the garage to put the stock alternator back on and will simply hook it up to a trickle-charger over night. And get my wife to fan me whilst I drive.