Well, a friend of mine called wanting to know if I would take an alternator off his hands. Its an aftermarket 150amp one wire-alternator. He's upgradding to a 180 amp (he's got some huge stereo that he says he needs a bigger alt for.) Hes basicaly giving it to me so long as I can get it to work on my car and use it.

It looks like its a universal alternator? Its a one-wire alternator. It has its own bracket and what not. He had it on his CSB 350.

Any ideas how I could make that work guys? I know I'd probably end up losing the idiot lights and volt meter though?

Thanks!

EDIT: Also it does have a two-wire-harness on the back. I'm assuming for the idiotlight?

 

thats a good question.just hook it up and tell us.

 

Yep, try it- The voltmeter on the gauge cluster should still work, even if the internal voltage reg circuitry of the alt is different...The alt warning light relay may not, though, depending on the application of the circuits at the back plug...

An alt is an alt, though- spin it around, and get it excited (through its field coil, dirty minds, lol) and she should give you an output...

 

you mean if i get "her" excited, she'll put out? Interesting. I think I'll try it out, see what happens. Would be definate upgrade over the s5's 80 or 100amp output.

 

wouldnt 150 be to much?... dont want to start popping fuses

 

true, but i thought they are internaly regulated?

 

Just because it's rated for 150A, doesn't mean it's going to shove 150A into your system, lol...

It's only going to produce what it's asked to- if you have a 2 million watt sound system cranked up, you're asking her to put out max power for it...

If you're at idle with nothing on, and the battery is fairly charged, she's only going to put out maybe 20A. This is all controlled by the internal voltage regulator, and the strength of the field coil...

 

And on the FC, if i remember right, the Alt warning light relay make all the light in the idiot panel to stay ON...

But i guess u can wire a constant voltage to the relay.

 

I ran my alternator (stock FC) as a one-wire alternator for a while due to forgetting about that clip on the back.

Voltmeter worked fine.
"Alternator failure" glowing cluster of lights didn't ever light up (though individual lights worked just fine).
The alternator didn't really seem to "come online" until 3000 RPM or so - I'd be reading just battery voltage till I blipped the throttle a bit, and then it would jump up to it's normal 13.8-14.2v reading.

You shouldn't have any problems with it. Just keep an eye on the voltmeter, since the warning lights won't help you if the alternator dies. You'll also want to make sure you have multiple belts driving the water pump, since with the stock system a failed alternator belt will light stuff up, and if you don't have another belt, it's a good time to shut down & pull over.

-=Russ=-