130 Amp Taurus Alternator Swap
07-28-11, 09:49 PM
#1
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130 Amp Taurus Alternator Swap
So I had the same problem alot of the S4 guys are having... the stock 70A alternator is barely enough to keep up with the stock system never mind a car with fans, stereo, amplifiers, etc....
So after doing some searching, I discovered some people on the forum have done Taurus alternator swaps... it's a 130A alternator, and because there are so many Taurus's, they're pretty cheap. The swaps that I did find done here seemed too complicated, they were making crazy brackets to make the alternator fit.
I made a trip down the local junkyard and picked up a mint alt out of a 96 Taurus, 3.0 OHV engine. My research tells me a 3.8 alt will also work. Looking at the alt, I found a way to mount it without having to make the brackets.
The Taurus uses a serpentine pulley, and the pulley on the stock S4 alt doesn't fit onto the shaft of the Taurus alternator. Rather than drilling out the stock pulley, I made a trip down to a local alternator shop and picked up a brand new pulley slightly larger than stock (so I don't over-rev the alternator) that fit perfectly on the shaft of the Taurus alt.
The Taurus alt has two ears on it, one small and one big. I had to grind a little off of the small ear to get the pulley alignment just right. When grinding it, you have to make sure you keep the surface flat, so you dont throw the pulley alignment out on the vertical plane.
Once that was done, I realized that the other ear was too high for the stock adjuster bracket. I unbolted the adjust bracket, and made a small extension for it, drilling an extra hole in the oem bracket so the extension couldn't rotate, and three holes in a 1/4 piece of steel, bolted the two together and put it back on the car:
The belt was pretty simple- I need a belt 1" longer than the OEM belt.
Once I had the alternator in, it was a simple matter of wiring it up. The Taurus uses a system a lot like the FC. The main cable to the battery was upgraded to a 4GA, hooked up, run through a 150A circuit breaker, and connected to B+.
There are two other plugs on the Taurus alt, a single wire and a three wire. The single wire connects to the middle pin on the three wire, labeled "S". The two remaining wires are "A" (Yellow/White) and "I" (Green/Red). "A" Needs to be wired into constant power (I wired the original alt power wire to this, and "I" Goes to switched power, Black/White wire on the stock S4 alt harness.
Once that was done, I got to work on upgrading the ground wires on the car- I grounded the engine to the body using a tab on the back of the Taurus alternator, and an unused hole on the shock tower:
I grounded the body directly to the battery, connecting to an unused hole near the coil. You can see it (blue cable) in the picture below. You can also see the power cable running down to the circuit breaker, and and the new batter cables. The two small wires hooked up to the battery go directly to my voltage gauge:
Started it up, and boom, 13.86 V at idle
Raised the RPM a bit, to 1500, and was just over 14 V:
Hope all this info helps somebody!
-Dirk
So after doing some searching, I discovered some people on the forum have done Taurus alternator swaps... it's a 130A alternator, and because there are so many Taurus's, they're pretty cheap. The swaps that I did find done here seemed too complicated, they were making crazy brackets to make the alternator fit.
I made a trip down the local junkyard and picked up a mint alt out of a 96 Taurus, 3.0 OHV engine. My research tells me a 3.8 alt will also work. Looking at the alt, I found a way to mount it without having to make the brackets.
The Taurus uses a serpentine pulley, and the pulley on the stock S4 alt doesn't fit onto the shaft of the Taurus alternator. Rather than drilling out the stock pulley, I made a trip down to a local alternator shop and picked up a brand new pulley slightly larger than stock (so I don't over-rev the alternator) that fit perfectly on the shaft of the Taurus alt.
The Taurus alt has two ears on it, one small and one big. I had to grind a little off of the small ear to get the pulley alignment just right. When grinding it, you have to make sure you keep the surface flat, so you dont throw the pulley alignment out on the vertical plane.
Once that was done, I realized that the other ear was too high for the stock adjuster bracket. I unbolted the adjust bracket, and made a small extension for it, drilling an extra hole in the oem bracket so the extension couldn't rotate, and three holes in a 1/4 piece of steel, bolted the two together and put it back on the car:
The belt was pretty simple- I need a belt 1" longer than the OEM belt.
Once I had the alternator in, it was a simple matter of wiring it up. The Taurus uses a system a lot like the FC. The main cable to the battery was upgraded to a 4GA, hooked up, run through a 150A circuit breaker, and connected to B+.
There are two other plugs on the Taurus alt, a single wire and a three wire. The single wire connects to the middle pin on the three wire, labeled "S". The two remaining wires are "A" (Yellow/White) and "I" (Green/Red). "A" Needs to be wired into constant power (I wired the original alt power wire to this, and "I" Goes to switched power, Black/White wire on the stock S4 alt harness.
Once that was done, I got to work on upgrading the ground wires on the car- I grounded the engine to the body using a tab on the back of the Taurus alternator, and an unused hole on the shock tower:
I grounded the body directly to the battery, connecting to an unused hole near the coil. You can see it (blue cable) in the picture below. You can also see the power cable running down to the circuit breaker, and and the new batter cables. The two small wires hooked up to the battery go directly to my voltage gauge:
Started it up, and boom, 13.86 V at idle
Raised the RPM a bit, to 1500, and was just over 14 V:
Hope all this info helps somebody!
-Dirk
07-30-11, 02:35 PM
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Hm, my S4 alt is dying and I was going to either get another one or switch to an S5 alt but I can see this as being a cheap fix. Can you use any Taurus alt or are there only specific years? My voltage is sometimes dropping to 12V in the car and my alt is only providing around 48A. I can see it dying by the end of the year so I'm either going to buy a truck earlier than I thought and put my car in storage until next summer or I'm going to have to replace my alt. Also, am I going to have to buy the 150A breaker? I don't think I've seen anything like it under my hood.
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07-30-11, 05:43 PM
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Right in time, Dirk! (Needing a newer/better alternator anyway.) Will do. Great write-up!
A question, though... So, 4GA wire from battery to 150A breaker to B+, and also 4GA wire for ground?
A question, though... So, 4GA wire from battery to 150A breaker to B+, and also 4GA wire for ground?
07-31-11, 08:15 AM
#11
Welcome to the 130 Amp Taurus Alternator Club.
Nicely done. Your method is easier to duplicate.
If I do another one on an FC, I will do it your way.
Couple of things: The circuit breaker serves no purpose- the under hood main fuse box is more than sufficient. Negative on the circuit breaker is that it is a failure point in the system and that now you have 2 unprotected 'hot' lugs that offer the possibility of creating a short while working on anything nearby.
And there is no need for a ground wire on the Alt. It is already grounded at multiple points. More grounds are not more better.
Nicely done. Your method is easier to duplicate.
If I do another one on an FC, I will do it your way.Couple of things: The circuit breaker serves no purpose- the under hood main fuse box is more than sufficient. Negative on the circuit breaker is that it is a failure point in the system and that now you have 2 unprotected 'hot' lugs that offer the possibility of creating a short while working on anything nearby.
And there is no need for a ground wire on the Alt. It is already grounded at multiple points. More grounds are not more better.
07-31-11, 11:11 AM
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Welcome to the 130 Amp Taurus Alternator Club.
Nicely done. Your method is easier to duplicate. If I do another one on an FC, I will do it your way.
Couple of things: The circuit breaker serves no purpose- the under hood main fuse box is more than sufficient. Negative on the circuit breaker is that it is a failure point in the system and that now you have 2 unprotected 'hot' lugs that offer the possibility of creating a short while working on anything nearby.
And there is no need for a ground wire on the Alt. It is already grounded at multiple points. More grounds are not more better.
Nicely done. Your method is easier to duplicate.
If I do another one on an FC, I will do it your way.Couple of things: The circuit breaker serves no purpose- the under hood main fuse box is more than sufficient. Negative on the circuit breaker is that it is a failure point in the system and that now you have 2 unprotected 'hot' lugs that offer the possibility of creating a short while working on anything nearby.
And there is no need for a ground wire on the Alt. It is already grounded at multiple points. More grounds are not more better.
07-31-11, 11:48 PM
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can you please post what pulley you used? and the part number for the belt? i think that would complete the little details needed =) (i also wonder if a dual belt pulley exists for it )
08-14-11, 10:56 PM
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Taurus V-belt pulley
08-16-11, 02:47 AM
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I bought the belt just the other day... I totally forgot what size the guy said. If you have them look up the belt for your FC, and inform them that you want one an inch longer, they'll hook you up.
So far my Taurus alternator has worked great!
So far my Taurus alternator has worked great!
02-24-15, 04:02 PM
#24
Need some help
Reviving the thread here. So I'm having 2 problems with this alt. I ground the ear down and it barely reaches the second spot on the pulleys which I thought was fine. The pulleys were off so I modified the alternator a little more so it was dead on. Now I keep blowing belts and I can't figure out why. It squeaks a little and then boom it's done. Does the belt need to be on the first spot on the water pump and crank?
Second problem is I blew 2 main fuses during spirited driving. I can only find a 120amp fuse that will work in the stock fuse block. Has anyone else used something different or what could I do to re-route the power?
Cheers,
Trevor
Second problem is I blew 2 main fuses during spirited driving. I can only find a 120amp fuse that will work in the stock fuse block. Has anyone else used something different or what could I do to re-route the power?
Cheers,
Trevor
07-01-15, 11:48 AM
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130 Amp Taurus AlterNator Swap
Reviving the thread here. So I'm having 2 problems with this alt. I ground the ear down and it barely reaches the second spot on the pulleys which I thought was fine. The pulleys were off so I modified the alternator a little more so it was dead on. Now I keep blowing belts and I can't figure out why. It squeaks a little and then boom it's done. Does the belt need to be on the first spot on the water pump and crank?
Second problem is I blew 2 main fuses during spirited driving. I can only find a 120amp fuse that will work in the stock fuse block. Has anyone else used something different or what could I do to re-route the power?
Cheers,
Trevor
Second problem is I blew 2 main fuses during spirited driving. I can only find a 120amp fuse that will work in the stock fuse block. Has anyone else used something different or what could I do to re-route the power?
Cheers,
Trevor
