Delco or Leece-Neville generator?

Kevin Lynch

PCS Member
Would a '59 S&S hightop have come from the factory with a 2 belt Delco, or a Leece-Neville? If it was Delco, would that particular part have been used for a few more years?
Asking for a friend
Thanks
Kev
 
None of my books cover the commercial chassis for 1959, but knowing what I know about Delco alternators, I would guess that it is a Leece Neville, however, it doesn't matter much, because parts for those high output alternators are next to impossible to find, and finding someone that is old enough to remember them is also difficult. I had my 1969 CC alternator rebuilt when it came back from Ed's. Trucking company forgot to turn off the battery switches, and then when they tried to jump start the car, they must have hooked the jumper cables up backward, and blew out a couple of diodes. I had to hunt down parts, and I lucked out when Kevin O'Connell told me about a place in downtown LA that still had parts. I got what I needed to fix my alternator, and when I spoke to Kevin before his passing, I learned that the shop that had all the old parts for both Delco and Leece Neville, had closed their doors.
The best that he can do is to install a modern alternator on the car, along with new brackets etc. It is going to require someone with fabrication skills, and knowledge of how to wire the modern alternator to a 60 year old car.
 
Being its a 59 I doubt it has AC. That said the classic AC companies sell AC kits for 59s so why not go modern? These kits come with unobtrusive under dash AC units and best of all modern high output alternators and small modern compressors with bracketing in the package. I have this setup on my 56 Packard Caribbean Hardtop it works great runs cool on the hottest day Try OLD AIR PRODUCTS FT Worth Tex or Classic AC check the web among others. Why not be cool and charge right?
 
Pretty much strictly from memory; The only thing Delco had going with high capacity alternators in 59 was they weren't Motorola. They were coming back to Rochester by the gylord for reverse engineering to figure out what causes of failure were.

Bottom line, Delco had pushed too far ahead of what available tech could support, and their diode packages were grenading.

LN had taken a different path, instead of trying to stuff the rectifier into the alternator, they put it in an external box for 2 reasons. WHEN it blew it didn't take out the alternator, and better heat shedding. LN also appeared to borrow heavily from railroad signal engineering, making everything heavy and using cast iron instead of aluminum.
LN also quickly figured out they could provide 110 volts DC on the vehicle with 3 transformers and some of the 'new' post diodes + heat sink in a tin box inside the car, which served as a secondary heater and tone generator.

Motorola insisted they knew electronics, and proved they didn't. Post Office Jeeps with RH steering wheels more than proved it. I have 1 and wish I could find it a new owner.

Reality, alternator tech is really simplicity once you understand what is there.

The spinning part is nothing but a 3Ø alternator. DC that provides magnetism to make electrons is fed to the spinner. By adjusting the DC voltage you regulate the output from the 3 coils.
That output goes to a rectifier and gets converted to fairly clean DC.
The action becomes circular by effectively monitoring the DC out and adjusting DC to the spinner to compensate for current draw.

In 1959 the electronics to do the monitoring and adjusting still needed to be perfected. LN was definitely ahead of Delco in 59, at HIGHER cost.
LN was also a superior unit with heavier windings. Delco engineering revolved around millions of units and LN revolved around thousands of units.

Side note: Until 1982 Delco was still hauling failed units back to Rochester to disassemble and find causes of failure. I knew a person who could and would replace free of charge anything Delco Rochester made that failed in use. It saved me $$ on electric windows wiper motors and those damnable heat/AC blowers. Delco absolutely knew what was causing failures, and had a pretty good handle on use life to fail. They also knew how to increase use life. GM knew use life to failure was beyond Warranty period so fixes didn't get made.

Chrysler actually built the best alternator in the 60s. They gave up compact for cooling, and used a superior rectifier. Unfortunately Chrysler bean counters figured out thinner slip rings would survive Warranty period.
 
Thanks Walter!

I'm going to study all that in case there is a quiz. Thanks so much for that information. This all come from your memory????
Kev
 
Memory has a lot more "crap" stored in there.
Last wife called it a veritable cornucopia of crap nobody needed, till somebody needed it.

Only story I got is I grew up on a farm without much money so I learned all I could so I could keep things fixed. Then I got in the city and found the Library, never knew so much information existed.

Got good eyes for seeing things and used to have good ears for hearing things too. Learned a lot wandering around factories pasting phone number stickers on phones, most people love telling you what they do if you just ask.

Rochester area before Urban Renewal was a good place for a nosey kid. In the 50s there were minimally 5 foundries, including Sterling Siren, pouring everything from iron to aluminum, melted with coal or coke, and till 26 there was a blast furnace turning NY iron ore into pig iron with coal from Pa.
There were also 3 ambulance companies, National, Central and American fighting a daily war into the 60s. Had a couple tobacco companies too producing both cigarettes and chew till around 52. Had a Smoke Inspector who sat in a all building looking thru binoculars to see who was making too much smoke for decent air quality too.

It WAS a charmed city on 2 sides of a river blessed with plenty of water power to drive mills. In the 1860 time frame there were over 150 shoe factories, 8 legit clothing factories and who knows how many women doing piece work from home. Bars on the river bank had ceiling fans powered by the mill race and toilets that hung over the river.

When the blast furnace became unprofitable and shut down Rochester became the birthplace of red paint for wood barns. Iron ore got crushed and mixed with Linseed oil and red paint shipped out on steam ships and sailing ships headed West.

Fate dropped me in the middle of all this, when it took 7 women to connect a phone call from one desk to another across town, and my memory lets me talk and write about it time to time, least while I'm still breathing. Try explaining telephone operators working cord boards to some slack jaw staring at his device looking at you like yer nuts.

Along the road I got paid to translate between engineers who were sure they knew and mechanics who actually knew and got the job done. Beat he!! out of heavy lifting.
 
Right there with you mind full of little know facts nobody cares about anyway. I get calls and emails from folks all over the world on 55-56 Packards and tube radios. At age 9 was a evening telephone switchboard operator from 5:00 PM to 10:00PM at a School for handicapped at 10 worked after school in a radio repair shop. and fixed radios and tested tubes. Ain't it great to be old?
 
Some days it is...

While back Mike held his plastic box up and told me I was obsolete, google has all the information. OK. Few days later he's on the phone asking me a question. I told him google had the answer & hung up.

Following day his mom called, she's a long time bud, and asked what I told the boy. Seems he was so mad he called her to complain. She liked what I'd told him. Saw his wife a week or so later, she says he's so mad he can barely talk and still hasn't found the answer he asked me for. She's enjoying it. Her experience is in early childhood education and educating disabled kids.

Mike insists he's so valuable he MUST be paid for everything he does. Again, OK. Me too when I answer your question.

Like my bud Buzzard Breath keeps asking, "What's the prize for the generation that looses the most information?"
 
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