If you’re shopping for the best alternator for your specific engine application, you might come across a spec called alternator offset—and it’s something that you absolutely must be familiar with before making an alternator purchase.
For many engines, alternators are designed to fit a range of applications, and what often dictates alternator offset isn’t so much the alternator itself, rather the alternator mounting brackets for the specific vehicle/engine pairing.
In other words, the same engine and alternator combo might be used in different vehicles—which means the alternator placement and corresponding offset might be different between vehicle models due to underhood space constraints.
And even more confusingly, on some vintage applications, the alternator location might differ within the same vehicle depending on whether or not the engine was equipped with air conditioning—heck, sometimes an upgraded cooling package can change the location of the alternator.
Regardless, the good news here is that it’s pretty easy to determine your alternator offset, and to help you out, our pals over at Summit Racing created these handy illustrations that’ll show you exactly what alternator offset is.
It’s also worth mentioning that “Center Offset” is a possibility as well—we’ve seen that setup in places like Mod-Motor Mustangs and on Boxer engines like with alternators in Subarus.
The key thing to remember is that the left/right orientation is taken from the driver’s seat perspective, or the view from behind the engine.
Bonus Graphic: How to Tell If Your Alternator Belt is Tight Enough
Once you’ve got your alternator bolted up, if you’re using V-belts instead of a single serpentine belt, you’re going to need to make sure the V-belt is properly tensioned against the alternator pulley.
Again, the Summit Racing gang comes to the rescue with this easy-to-follow graphic:
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