Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:08:20 -0500
Reply-To: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tom Hargrave <thargrav@HIWAAY.NET>
Subject: Re: water cooled alternators
In-Reply-To: <00f501cae88c$d3fa9280$6401a8c0@PROSPERITY>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Do you really want to know what happened to AD Delco - it's the same thing
that is happening to the rest of the US auto industry and - no, it's not
greedy unions, excessive pay or excessive benefits.
The real issue is that through increased efficiency, all of the auto makers
- GM, Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Mercedes and even VW can produce far more with
less labor. This is a good thing for the world economy including us but
there is an unintentional side effect.
The issue is that because of increased efficiency and lesser so, because of
shrinking market share, the three US auto makers now have more retirees on
the insurance rolls than active Employees. It's so bad at GM that every
working Employee supports the insurance benefits of 6 retired Employees. The
foreign manufactures do not have this burden - the oldest foreign auto plant
just turned 35 and do you think they have many retirees? They have very few.
This shift in retiree burden makes the foreign manufacturers more
competitive in the market place to the tune of about $2,000 in manufacturing
cost per car. This burden driven advantage trickles all the way down to
Nippon, who probably produces more alternators, starters and compressors
than anyone else in the country these days. And Nippon had displaced, as you
might have guessed, AC Delco!
The playing field will level out as American Auto Worker retirees dies off
and Employees of Honda, Toyota, Mercedes and VW start retiring, that's
assuming the owners of these facilities don't start pulling the plugs on
plants and moving them off shore before the retiree wave hits. My prediction
is the latter.
Tom
www.towercooler.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
Scott Daniel - Turbovans
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 12:45 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: water cooled alternators
Whenever I see stuff like this ...
I just imagine someday in say 12 years, when the car and the coolant have
150,000 miles on them ...
and the corrosion in the alternator's cooling system part starts leaking
inside a little...
betcha ...
at a GM/Chevy dealership ....that's gonna be an up to 1,000 dollar repair.
$ 900 at least.
and isn't that interesting..
GM car with a Hitachi alternator.
what happened to AC Delco ?
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 7:45 PM
Subject: Re: water cooled alternators
> At 08:38 PM 4/29/2010, Danny C. wrote:
>>Are you saying you have an air cooled van and want to use an
>>alternator off of a water cooled van?
>
> No, he means an alternator which is water-cooled.
>
>>There are several new alternator designs out there - General Motors
>>has gone to water-cooled alternators (yes, there are 5/8" hose nipples
>>on the back of the alternator) to keep the diodes cool on the newer
>>model 4.6L Northstar V8s.
>
> http://www.hap.com/products/Alternators/Water/index.html
>
> Yours,
> David
