[Kevin]

My son has a Ford Capri and it has a strange alternator quirk. When the car runs during daylight hours everything is fine, but as soon as he turns on the headlights (those pop-up type) the belt starts squealing, burning and eventually stretches and breaks.
I don't understand why the load the alternator puts on the belt would be so significantly higher when the headlights are on?
A mechanic recently checked the alternator and said it is OK. I put a meter on it and it is charging OK.
Strange???????? :think:

 

[apanthropy]

The mechanical/rotational load on the alternator will naturally be higher when more current is drawn from it... BUT, not *THAT* much higher.

is/was the belt tensioned correctly?

 

[Kevin]

Yes, I didn't think the mechanical load should be that much greater. As of today, it's now doing it with a tiny extra load, eg when the indicators are on. It's in a workshop now trying to figure out what's wrong. It may be that the wrong belt is being used and with a little extra load it's biting into the V of the pulley.

 

[Subyroo]

My son has a Ford Capri and it has a strange alternator quirk. When the car runs during daylight hours everything is fine, but as soon as he turns on the headlights (those pop-up type) the belt starts squealing, burning and eventually stretches and breaks.
I don't understand why the load the alternator puts on the belt would be so significantly higher when the headlights are on?
A mechanic recently checked the alternator and said it is OK. I put a meter on it and it is charging OK.
Strange???????? :think:

I've never heard of that problem before with the Capri's Kevin.

I had a 71 V6 GT Capri, it was a real zoom zoom machine in it's days, I even had the privilege of having Jack Brabhams F1 mechanic tune it up and by sh*t didn't it go after that.

He had to put a new set of contacts onto the arms of my points set as I couldn't buy any within Australia, Ford had none at all and there were no cross over sets either, he wouldn't show me how to do it, trade secret he said, he also showed me how to use the revs and gears to the max down University Drive in Townsville (road along the front of Lavarack Barracks) and after that lesson I put a few red faces on some V8 owners when leaving the lights.
Yep! I was a teen hoon and still am to a smaller degree, I just choose my time and place and targets more carefully these days with the XS. :spinnasmiley :spinnasmiley

 

[Kevin]

This one is the soft-top 1994 Clubsport (turbo). It's a real bugger to work on - the water pump, alternator etc are buried under the RHS of the engine bay.

Anyway, it seems the mechanic who pulled the alternator off and tested it a while back, didn't put one of the bolts back in ! They call themselves "professionals" :tempertantrum So, with another bolt and retension it's behaving OK; not completely cured but much better than it was a couple of days ago.