Bobcat 610 Alternator Swap

[adulbrich]

I have had a Bobcat 610 for almost a year now, and purchasing it has been one of the best financial decisions I've ever made. I welded up a quick attach plate for it, and now have several attachments. It had a hard life before I got it and gave it some TLC, but now she gets parked inside every night and usually gets plugged into a battery tender.

Last week, my battery tender crapped out and I didn't have my Bobcat plugged in at all. Had to jump it, and then checked the battery voltage while running. It was at a standard resting voltage and falling slowly, so it is not charging. Increasing engine RPM had no effect on the voltage.

From what I've seen, these older models have an external regulator for the alternator. I saw on an old forum post from 2014 that someone replaced their 610 alternator with a single wire GM alternator. Does anyone have a part number or link to an alternator that would work?

I see direct factory replacement alternators online around $150 and external regulators for $32, but I'm not sure which component is faulty. I would like to just swap in a common off-the-shelf internally regulated alternator to simplify things in the future.

 

[adulbrich]

I think you can get the correct solution from its manual.you can buy an affordable manual.

I have the manual. Charging system troubleshooting starts on page 88. I would like to swap to a newer internally regulated alternator.

Part of the reason I want to swap to a different alternator is because factory replacement parts get harder and harder to find. For example, my mechanical fuel pump went out and I tried to find a replacement. They don't make them anymore, so I ended up installing an aftermarket electric fuel pump that has worked great for 6 months now.

 

[laurencen]

any GM altenator with the 2connector plug is a easy install

 

[foton]

let me add that all gm single wire alternators are not the same,they have different amp outputs ,so if you are running any high drain electrical loads make sure you get one big enough. alot of them are in the 60 to 70 amp design. make sure you hook up the sense wire to help it start charging at lower rpms.

 

[adulbrich]

any GM altenator with the 2connector plug is a easy install

Probably not the best generic statement. My 07 Silverado has a 2 pin connector, and it is PCM regulated. The output is regulated by the PCM by varying the duty cycle of the AC electrical signal. Overly complex system, in my opinion.

let me add that all gm single wire alternators are not the same,they have different amp outputs ,so if you are running any high drain electrical loads make sure you get one big enough. alot of them are in the 60 to 70 amp design. make sure you hook up the sense wire to help it start charging at lower rpms.

The only electrical loads that I added to the system are a small electric fuel pump and some LED lights for pushing snow before the sun comes up. That being said, I will try to get a higher output alternator in case I decide to add any more electronics down the road, like a fan for the cab or something.

 

[laurencen]

let me follow up any GM 2 wire altenator old school before computers ran the show