She's alive with the 3D printed part!
I finished my generator-to-alternator conversion tonight. There were 2 things holding me up:
1) something was stopping the battery from charging
and
2) no bracket under the sun fit my engine mounts and the new alternator -- the belt was out of alignment by up to 1/4 inch
For issue #1, I thought all alternators have built-in voltage regulators. Nope! It took some time, but we realized that I needed to keep my voltage regulator in place. Popped on my in-tact regulator. Fired her up, and everything was working! 14.6 volts at the alternator, 13.5-14.0 at the battery!
So if you swap out your generator for an alternator, you might need to keep what every tutorial calls the "redundant" voltage regulator.
As for issue #2, my 3D part's holding up after some time on the road (a few months of small trips)! The material's called PLA, and it has a somewhat low melting point (about 130-180C or 260-360F), but I coated it in boat epoxy for extra strength, and it's working great and holding the alternator and the belt in place!
Edited by ryanlogsdon, 03 July 2021 - 01:51 AM.
