Generator Rebuild and Alternator Upgrade

[Jeff Yuksel]

On PA30B Model , what would be the cost to rebuild/replace the generators or upgrading to Alternator?
Anyone done this recently? Any suggestions?

[Timothy Poole]

I just did the Plane Power conversion on our 1965 PA-30. The kit is available at Spruce (TAL12-70) for $1478. You might be able to shop around to see if it can be found cheaper. I'm an A&P so I did the install myself along with our IA. It was fairly straightforward. Most painful part was running new wires through the wings out to the nacelles and then to the alternators (field and aux). We did not upgrade the 6awg main wires feeding the aircraft bus so we left the original 50 amp circuit breakers in place.

Tim

[Jeff Yuksel]

Thanks for the info Tim

[Charles Schefer]

Did the same (TAL-12-70) on my PA-30 about 1.5 years ago and near that same time did a new Concorde AGM battery, Bogurt battery box and copper battery cables. It's revolutionized the plane especially at night. We didn't have to run any new wires thru the wings but we did have to do some around the breaker panel and replaced the generator switches with new breaker switches for the alternator field. The generators use an extra wire not used by the alternators so we were able to use that as the signal wire for the field fail lights now in the panel.

2 important things... Search the forums for related posts...

1) you will need new alternator belts. The stock generator belts are too tight for the new alternators. Easy enough to change just pull the props and put on the new belt. You just need new prop o-rings. Two people can do this in an hour.

2) the alternator field lights only show a field failure not an alternator failure. Recognize your alternator can fail but if there's still good power to the field the fail light won't come on.

You will also gain about 10-15 lbs useful load doing this upgrade getting rid of the heavy generators. If you want an generator (vs rebuilding) I can send you the one I have that is still enable for the cost of shipping. No yellow tag or 8130-3... But it was working when removed. You can reach me at charles dot schefer @ gmail dot com.

- Charles