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MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Lucas Alternator disguised as Generator

Has anyone noticed this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250513931146&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT

Nice for maintaining that original appearance, but is it worth it? At what price would owners of MGA's be interested in this over an Alternator conversion?
James Johanski

What's wrong with the generator/dynamo? Mine seems to keep up with the demands put on it. My Magnette and midget were both equipped with dynamos and my 25 years of ownership I had to change the Midget one once when it went faulty but all I had to do to the Magnette dynamo was change the brushes once. Both cars were used as daily transport. I can't see the point in converting unless more power is required to run extra lights or a powerful sound system or am I missing something here?
Lindsay Sampford

James, an interesting concept, and it bears watching. Most recently I had new "guts" put into the old case on my MGA starter on re-building to maintain the original build date on the starter and for originality's sake. I would be most interested in someone who could take the original generator body and make an alternator out of it so I could retain, not just the look, but the build date on the "generator" which is now an alternator--and no one would be the wiser unless they looked real hard at the regulator box wiring. To me, it is not much different than the recent conversions of the regulator boxes and the turn signal relays to "solid state" with the exterior cases being original. While not strictly a purist, it does sooth my concious just a little...IMHO...Doug
Doug Schimke

I can't see the value on a stock restored MGA because there really isn't enough of an electrical load to be a problem. On other cars that originaly came with dynamos that had fog lamps, A/C or electric fans, etc there really might be a need for the increased output. If you've added that sort of stuff to your MGA then it's modified enough so that a standard alternator conversion shouldn't be much of a problem. The one place where I can see some value is for owners of Frogeyes or T type MGs which used a tach driven off the dynamo and want to upgrade the electrical system, there the ability to keep the tach drive might well be worth the expense.
Bill Young

We discussed it about 3 years ago. See here in the archives: http://www2.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgbbs&access=&mode=archiveth&subject=6&subjectar=6&thread=2006011801363232223

This is a link Barney posted: http://www.racemettleltd.co.uk/dyn.html

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve, it doesn't seem to be possible to link to an archive thread, the link just gets back to the live page.
Lindsay Sampford

I have a rebuilt generator (rebuilt by the PO - I haven't tested it) from a 1500 that I am not planning to use as I have already installed an alternator. If someone needs a good generator - let me know.

JIM in NH
jimmail001@comcast.net
AJ Mail

James - it's a Dynalite alternator made in Uk and quite well known - reported on in a recent classic car mag - so it seems to work well -it can be obtained cheaper than the ebay listing but still very pricey and unnecessary if running standard electrical gear. - cheers Cam
Cam Cunningham

This thread was discussed on 16/10/2009

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.