Vans Alternator and ECI engine

[hecilopter]

I'm helping a buddy with his -7A and we are to the point of installing the alternator. It is the 60 amp from Van's in their FWF kit. After installing it on the mounting bracket and putting the starting ring gear/prop/spinner on, we noticed the pulley on the starter ring gear and the pulley on the alternator are out of alignment about 1/4".

There is no way to adjust this as the alternator mounting bracket is mounted to the engine thru 4 bolt holes that were already in the engine.

His engine is an ECI Titan I0-360 parallel valve.

I have a Superior XP-360 on mine and the pulleys aligned perfectly with the same set up.

Is there a different mounting bracket for the ECI which has the mounting holes in the bracket shifted about 1/4" aft? Anyone else with this problem?

Thanks!

 

[Ironflight]

Not sure this helps you much Rusty, but as a data point, I have the TMX-360 from Mattituck, built with the ECI case, and the Van's alternator from the FWF kit, and they lined up without a problem.

Paul

 

[13brv3]

I just mounted a 60A alternater on my ECI O-360 engine built by Aerosport. No problem with the pulley alignment on mine.

It might help if you could post a pic of the installation, so we can see if it looks any different from ours. If you want to email me a pic, I'll take a look, and also send you a pic of my installation for comparison.

Cheers,
Rusty
13brv3 at bellsouth dot net

 

[petehowell]

I had the same issue

Rusty,

I have an ECI O-320 and had the same issue. Local builder has a metal working machine and we elongated the holes to make it work. Could probably do the same thing with a file if you needed to.

 

[hecilopter]

Thanks for the replies

Unfortunately, I didn't snap a pic before we left last night! However, from the responses so far, it seems to vary (2 with no problem and 1 with the same problem + ours). It just seems odd that the spec on the engine would not be identical to a Lycoming. I wonder if the mounting bracket holes vary a little when manufactured? Is it possible there is one for the O-320 and one for the O-360 that have holes shifted 1/4"?

If so, that may explain it if the wrong bracket got put in the FWF kit. I guess a call to Van's is in order.

 

[sf3543]

I have the ECI IO 360 Parallel valve engine with the VAN's 60 A alternator in my RV8. During installation, I did have to oval out the mounting bracket holes slightly, since they didn't line up perfectly with the holes in the case, but the pulley and starter ring line up fine. I have almost 50 hrs on the plane now and haven't had any problems.
Just one more data point.
Have you looked to see if the pulley is installed correctly? It could possibly be on backwards or maybe isn't pressed all the way onto the shaft. (Assumes the pulley is forward of the starter ring.)

 

[rvkcflyer]

Alternator bracket on Lycoming

The bracket on my Lycoming O-360-A1A was out of alignment by about 1/4" as well. I had to elongate the holes to get the pullies to line up. The bracket I recieved from Van's a few weeks ago was steel but a drill and file took care of the problem in short order.

Kevin
RV-6

 

[hecilopter]

Update/call to Van's

Well, my buddy called Van's and sure enough, they said the solution is to elongate the holes in the mounting bracket. Apparently this is a common problem and each installation is slightly different. Doen't make a lot of sense to me since there are several that work just fine.

Thanks everyone!