30, 41, 46, 50 amp alternators? Yeah RIGHT

So, has anyone noticed the funny business Mopar used with their alternator ratings? Oh, I know there were supposed to be different ratings available on paper in different years, but I spent some time looking through parts books recently and found some interesting stuff. Let me clarify that I'm not a charging system expert or an alternator expert. Perhaps there is an unlisted component involved that changes the output of the alternator, but I'm not certain what that would be.

I looked at the 1965 through '69 parts books first. In 1965 and '66 there were two "common" alternators available...the "830" alternator which was a 30-amp unit, and the "850" alternator which was a 50-amp unit. The parts listings, including rotor, stataor, rectifiers and everything else appears to be identical. In '67 and '68, there were 3 alternators, the "537" 37-amp unit, the 850, and the "010" 60-amp unit. Now everything started to be more accurate...there were two different rotors, 3 different stators and two different rectifiers. That makes sense.

In '69 there were nearly a dozen part numbers that I didn't want to work through, so I skipped to 1972. The 8803, 8804 and 8806 are the 34, 41 and 50-amp units. Again, no difference in components. Skip to 1974, same deal. The first three alternators are even in the same column by now. So, are the parts books telling the techs to build them all back as 50-amp units if they had one fail, even if that's not what the car came with? Were they charging(ha ha, get it?) customers for a higher-output alternator even when they already had one?

I actually have two unrebuilt 1974 alternators on hand. One is 34-amp, one is a 50-amp. They look identical except for the tags.They both have the same green stator. Maybe there a difference, but the book says no.

Well just something I found curious but not surprising. Yes, there are more alternator applications than I mentioned.