Important: Improvements on Saturn Alternator Swap

[talondsp1]

Hey is there any way that we can get a diagram of how to wire things up for a 2g? I read over everything and I am not very confident with my wiring and don't feel like burning anything up.

What pigtail do you have for your alternator? Is it a 2 wire or a 3 wire(one of them a big red wire)

If you have the 3 wire plug, here is a real simple way to hook it up and you do not have to run any wires anywhere.


use the 2 middle wires from your factory plug.

the one that has 12 volt with the key off( should be red) hook it to the red wire (S terminal)on your saturn 3 wire plug.

the other wire(should be black with yellow stripe) hook it to the L teminal (should be brown wire on the saturn 3 wire plug)


So to recap

red wire on stock harnes to (S) red wire on 3 wire plug.

Black with yellow stripe on stock harness to (L) brown wire on 3 wire plug.

Tape off all other wires.

I can tell you other ways to run the S wire for better voltage control if needed. But this works fine for most.

 

[giovanniv]

Right now I have the 2 wire pigtail with the black and black and white wire. I need the 3 wire pigtail correct?

 

[talondsp1]

Right now I have the 2 wire pigtail with the black and black and white wire. I need the 3 wire pigtail correct?

No. You don't have tohave it. You can use the 2 wire plug. Just use the instructions I posted earlier. Just disregard the red wire.

The L wire will turn on the alternator. So just hook it to the black with yellow stripe wire on the factory plug.

If you have any problems let me know.

David

 

[giovanniv]

So basically hook up the L wire to the black and yellow stripe on the harness and the F wire to the 12volt red wire on the harness?

 

[talondsp1]

So basically hook up the L wire to the black and yellow stripe on the harness and the F wire to the 12volt red wire on the harness?

No. If you use the F wire it must go to a switched 12 source because it has a slight draw on it. It will slowly run the battery down when the engine is not running.

F and L both activate the alternator( regulator) the F does it with 12 volts and the L does it with a resisted 12 volt.

You can use either on or both to turn it on. But F must be on a switched source.

 

[RipperXX]

You know, if you don't mind spending 225-250 dollars, you could just buy one of these Mitsubishi Eclipse High Output Alternators 140 amps, bolt on, plug up and go. *shrug*

 

[talondsp1]

You know, if you don't mind spending 225-250 dollars, you could just buy one of these Mitsubishi Eclipse High Output Alternators 140 amps, bolt on, plug up and go. *shrug*

Yep. They can be good for some. I have had 3 of those and the regulator goes out if you have a lot of load on them all the time.

The regulator is still the a 75 or 100 amp if your lucky.

The Saturn alternator does take a little grinding to install, but there is only one wire that has to be hooked up( besides the charge wire)

Plus you can use the S wire and run it to a point that sees the lowest voltage in your car, and raise the output.

The 105 anp Saturn will compete with that 140 amp rewound stocker anyday.

 

[giovanniv]

You know, if you don't mind spending 225-250 dollars, you could just buy one of these Mitsubishi Eclipse High Output Alternators 140 amps, bolt on, plug up and go. *shrug*

But I do mind. I got my Saturn alt for free!

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

Yep. They can be good for some. I have had 3 of those and the regulator goes out if you have a lot of load on them all the time.

The regulator is still the a 75 or 100 amp if your lucky.

The Saturn alternator does take a little grinding to install, but there is only one wire that has to be hooked up( besides the charge wire)

Plus you can use the S wire and run it to a point that sees the lowest voltage in your car, and raise the output.

The 105 anp Saturn will compete with that 140 amp rewound stocker anyday.

^Absolutely! I've always had nothing but problems with the Mitsu regulators as well... This is why I ended up switching over to a relocated Saturn alt setup. Once finished, the difference was night & day in terms of overall available voltage throughout the entire RPM range.

For anyone thinking of staying with OEM or going with a Mitsu rewound alt, do yourself a favor & take a datalog of onboard voltage while WOT to see what happens... My old 250amp rewound Mitsu alt had my ECU reporting an onboard voltage of 10.8 at WOT IMO all Mitsu alt's behave the same way whether rewound or not.

 

[giovanniv]

I've got a dumb question but I have to ask.... Where does that single wire on a terminal go to? Like there is one single wire on a terminal and then there is a double white wire that goes to a terminal. Do they go in the same place on the alternator because they were at different places on the dsm alt.

 

[talondsp1]

I've got a dumb question but I have to ask.... Where does that single wire on a terminal go to? Like there is one single wire on a terminal and then there is a double white wire that goes to a terminal. Do they go in the same place on the alternator because they were at different places on the dsm alt.

The single wire going to a terminal, as you put it, isn't a wire. It is a bracket that holds the stock wires in place to the stock alternator so they stay away from the u2 housing.

The double white wire is the output of the alternator. It goes to a fuse in the fusebox, then to the battery.

 

[giovanniv]

Alright great. Now I just have to deal with the problem of the blades on the alt hitting the tensioner! Did you have this problem also? I flipped it over so the flat side of the tensioner was down but the blades still hit it.

 

[Spyderman7]

Which saturn alt is the right one to get (year/model)?

 

[giovanniv]

Mine came out of a 96 if im not mistaken

 

[Spyderman7]

Do you know what model?

 

[ElectronVTEC]

Has anyone had to run a smaller belt on a 2G with the stock oil/water cooler installed? I'm running into the same issue as above (middle of page 4), and I ground off a good portion of the indicated area, but my belt still seems almost a full inch (or more, not really sure how to gauge that) too long. Any ideas?

Todd

 

[billk1]

Has anyone had to run a smaller belt on a 2G with the stock oil/water cooler installed? I'm running into the same issue as above (middle of page 4), and I ground off a good portion of the indicated area, but my belt still seems almost a full inch (or more, not really sure how to gauge that) too long. Any ideas?

Todd

I did the swap and had to grind a lot off engine,mostly on the outter portion of the tab and my 95 watercooled oil filter housing hit alt. so ground that and water pipe nipple and hose near engine is really close to alt output terminal, still it was worth it, 14.2 driving around and high 13s at a idle above 1000 rpm, if lights and fan and amps are on at idle -below 1000 rpm, gets into low 12s fast, I just picked up a smaller pulley so I hope that will take care of idle voltage drop,also had to buy a 1/2 inch shorter belt, when grinding make sure afterwards you can put in the lowwer pivot bolt and rock alt. so it taps engine one way and oil filter housing the other way so you have max adjustment travel

 

[97gst_spyder]

If I'm using a 105amp alt, do I still run it to the fusebox with a 100 amp fuse? Or run it to the battery with a fuse inline?

 

[tenn-gsx]

Hey guys Im installing a Saturn alt on my engine as well as running a EVO9 OFH. This created a possible clearance issue with the belt. Im considering grinding down a small piece of the OFH to gain more clearance.

 

[black_gst]

Nice engine! Also i think i read somewhere that the Fluidamper has a slightly larger diameter, maybe you can confirm that.

 

[tenn-gsx]

So I ended up grinding on the OFH in 2 places to gain extra clearance and to allow the ALT to ratate in more. Also for one of the sensors you will need a 90 DEG adapter because the port is inline with the belt. The belt is pictured so that you guys know what belt Im using for this fitment.

Oddball things on my build.......
EVO9 OFH
Saturn alt WITH SMALLER PULLEY
Fluidamper crank pulley.

Hope this helps others trying to do this same setup.

Im not sure about the larger diameter because I no longer have a stock dampener to compair to.

kIgnore the oil sensor pic. That pic shows nothing useful as I was thinking that hole sees oil pressure when apparantly it does not.

 

[97gst_spyder]

So I have my Saturn Alt wired as per this wire up. It has been working fine for months. Today I was speeding up hit full boost and the battery and brake light lite up dimmly. Then went out for a sec then back on. The car seems to drive better with these both on surprisingly. I have checked the Alt fuse and resistor 'relay' thing, all seems good. The Field wire is good as is the black/yellow wire. Also, the alt cables are nice and tight still.

I had it tested, the system is only at 12.56 volts. It used to be 14.7-14.4 at all times. Sound like bad alt or bad wire?

 

[tenn-gsx]

Hey guys I installed the self exciting single wire alt. What are you all doing with the stock alt wiring to make it safe? right now mine is just dangling next to the alt.

 

[turboglenn]

At first i cut mine off at the lower radiator support, then capped them with rubber vacum line caps and put shrink wrap and a little tape over them. Later on (actually a few weeks ago) I had to put in a new radiator and i removed the old wires completely

I've been prototyping a new alternator top bracket that puts the CS style alt's top bolt back inside the slot, making it fit like OEM. they are time consuming to make so i doubt i'll run off a ton of them but if they work out i'll post up a pic in custom fab and may do a few by request.

I still haven't finished the new pulleys although i now have the tools, i've just been too busy with other things

 

[97gst_spyder]

Please let ms know when/if you make the braket adapter! I'm so ####ing tired of either the adjustment bolt snapping off during a pull or it coming loose after a 20min drive.