Unidentified alternator; thought to be Bosch!?!

[NASkeet]

Can anyone identify this alternator, which was mistakenly procured for me by an e-mail pen-pal in California; believing it to be a 1974~79 VW 18/2000 Type 2's alternative 70A Bosch alternator, which I hoped to retro-fit to my British specification, 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with VW Type 4 style air-cooled engine?

Ideally, I would like to find out from which vehicle or vehicles (might not be VW) it could have originated, with a view to reselling it.

_________________
Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper

Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)

http://www.vwt2oc.net

[NASkeet]

The alternator is a rather bulky & heavy item (weighing circa 14 lbs or 6•35 kg).

At the end furthest from the drive-pulley & fan, there is a circa 45 mm deep, pressed-sheet-steel end cover, incorporating a cylindrical air-connection spigot, at a slight angle to the alternator shaft’s axis, which points towards the other end of the alternator, where the drive-pulley & fan are located.

With the circa 45 mm deep, pressed-sheet-steel end cover attached to the alternator, the alternator could not be fitted to a 1972~79 VW 17/18/2000 Type 2 with VW type 4 style air-cooled engine, because the end cover would occupy some of the same space occupied by engine-cylinder No. 2.

On a 1972~79 VW 17/18/2000 Type 2’s 70A alternator, there is no pressed-sheet-steel end cover and the cylindrical air-connection spigot, forms an integral part of the alternator’s cast aluminium chassis cum casing, which cannot be readily removed without the use of a saw, angle-grinder or similar cutting tool.

Apart from the remanufacturer’s circular label (bearing the legend OEM in the centre, surrounded around the circumference by the word REMANUFACTURED printed twice, separated by two large circular dots/blobs •) on the external surface of the alternator’s aluminium chassis cum casing, I can find no other discernible markings.

If one removes the pressed-sheet-steel end cover, by removing the three 10 mm AF hex-head bolts (i.e. M6 bolts), one can see a black-coloured, Bosch radio-interference-suppression capacitor, bearing the Bosch logo or emblem and legend as follows:

(Bosch logo or emblem) Germany
22µF/100V
0 290 800 028

Embossed on the surface of the alternator’s aluminium chassis cum casing (normally concealed by the pressed-sheet-steel end cover), close to the electrical terminals, are letters and/or symbols (e.g. B and D) of a type that one would associate with German DIN Standard terminal labels.

Hence, this is probably a Bosch alternator of some kind; suggesting that it probably originated from a vehicle of German or northern European manufacture, such as VW-Audi, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo or SAAB. If true, then it’s conceivable that there might be some cars in Britain or Europe, in future need of one of these alternators.

I am also wondering whether the combined pulley & fan could be transferred to the 1972~79 VW 17/18/2000 Type 2’s 55A alternator, to provide additional alternator-cooling for those occasions when operating at or close to full load (i.e. 55A) and/or during especially hot weather.

Running the Bosch part number for the radio-interference suppression capacitor yields:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-Volkswagen-Suppre...2f12f77f99

I’m intrigued by the fact that a radio-interference suppression capacitor (Bosch part No. 0 290 800 028) should lead to an alternator for just two specific vehicles (i.e. Audi 4000 Quattro & Audi 5000). I suspect that such a generic component would have been fitted to a variety of Bosch alternators of several different car marques & models.

To see whether I could glean any additional information, I removed the large black structure which is fixed to the alternator by two M4 machine screws; concealed inside the pressed sheet-steel end-cover. After removing, and then cleaning this item (what appears to be a brush holder with two sprung-loaded carbon brushes) with an old toothbrush, I could read the following white printing:

35–9100
MO64 or M064 followed by P432*, where * is an indistinct character which is most likely a 3 or an 8.

Elsewhere on the brush-holder section itself, is some red printing which appears to be OCT, followed by a large space and the number 10, followed by a slightly shorter space and a date-year. The 0 of the number 10, looks more like the shape of an up-side-down capital letter D.

The date-year appears to be 1995, but it’s difficult to be sure about the last two digits, the latter of which is still largely obscured by dirt or staining which might need to be scraped off. The first two digits are clearly 1 and 9 and the third digit looks most like a 9, but could conceivably be an 8 instead. My best guess for the fourth digit is a 5, but I would not wish to stake my reputation on that.

It’s strange that the alternator itself, appears to have no discernible markings on it apart from the OEM & (REMANUFACTURED•REMANUFACTURED•) sticker and embossed electrical-terminal labels (i.e. B+ and D+)! Assuming I am correct that it is a Bosch alternator, why would a remanufacturer remove the original manufacturer’s sticker bearing details of part numbers, operating voltage and maximum current output!?! It seems illogical to me, to sell any product whose specification and/or application is not uniquely identified!

Yesterday, I undertook a brief Internet search, specifying search criteria of Bosch alternators which feature an air-cooling duct or hose connection and discovered that there seem to be a few BMW cars which have this feature, but the alternator’s end-cover and hose-connection spigot configurations, looked very different from that on the alternator I have.
_________________
Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper

Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)

http://www.vwt2oc.net