Important: Improvements on Saturn Alternator Swap

[97gst_spyder]

The above is from your post #7 in this thread. There is a correction to the above: On the Dorman pigtail (part #85854) for these Saturn GM CS alternators, the pigtail's black wire is actually the "F" and the brown wire is the "L".

Also, none of those stores carry the pigtail on the shelf anymore.... I dont think they car order it either anymore...

 

[IrishBeatdown]

Also, none of those stores carry the pigtail on the shelf anymore.... I dont think they car order it either anymore...

I just did the saturn alternator swap a week ago. O'Reilly carried the piece, they were puzzled when I asked them about it, and I had never seen one before, so I had them pull the same model alternator that I bought and I found the correct pigtail on the shelf. I wish I still had the package so I could give you the part #., but they DO carry the pigtails.

 

[Blurred Talon]

Question for you guys.
The OEM alt set up uses 2 10AWG wire from the fuse box to the Alternator. Why did they do this?
Can I get away with running just 1 6AWG wire to the Alternator from the fuse box?

 

[Killa_dsm]

Also, none of those stores carry the pigtail on the shelf anymore.... I dont think they car order it either anymore...

Tell them to look up part #: 85854 Line Code: CTI. This will allow them to check quantity on had. My Oreilly's has 2 on the shelf. And if they don't have it they should be able to order it through their warehouse.

 

[miguelmcv]

Also, none of those stores carry the pigtail on the shelf anymore.... I dont think they car order it either anymore...

I just bought the pig tail from Oreilly, The guy was asking for the year and model of the car and couldn't find anything, I just told him to look for part #85854, and he found it right away, They had it on the shelf.


For the record, I just found out, the 1999 Chevy Cavalier has a small pulley, which it will fit the saturn alternator

For everyone who is looking for a smaller diameter pulley, this is the one we all need.

Here is a pic of the difference of the pulley.

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I hope this helps.

The picture doesn't show up the difference very well, I will insert another pic with a different angle and post it here, even with a gauge to see how small it is, compared from the saturn.

 

[Yamahaulin]

Are you guys still frying the alternators if you relocate them to other side of block, that should remove a ton if heat and eliminate oil leaks too. I'm thinking of buying a 200amp alt for a Saturn and locating it to the rear, that should make it last a lot longer.

 

[DECODER22]

Are you guys still frying the alternators if you relocate them to other side of block, that should remove a ton if heat and eliminate oil leaks too. I'm thinking of buying a 200amp alt for a Saturn and locating it to the rear, that should make it last a lot longer.

ill be doing the jay racing relocate soon

 

[DECODER22]

i run the factor Mitsu pulley on my saturn unit, i think i had to machine it just a tad but its been the perfect one so far... i had a smaller pulley and ended up over spinning the Alt and it exploded ... then went to a bigger one, but it was a tad larger then the mitsu one, and idle volts sucked, then i tried the mitsu one, and great results...

whats this talk of brackets? are you guys having problems with the stock one? i never have any problems with mine

how did you get the oem mitsu pulley on the saturn??? also would you make another one ill send you a oem pulley

 

[gprix1]

^^^^ Yes, please elaborate on this.

 

[97gst_spyder]

Are you guys still frying the alternators if you relocate them to other side of block, that should remove a ton if heat and eliminate oil leaks too. I'm thinking of buying a 200amp alt for a Saturn and locating it to the rear, that should make it last a lot longer.

If you do NOT have any exhaust leaks, no cooling issues, factory heatsheilds installed, and have a some type of effective heat sheild on the back of the Saturn alt. You will be Fine....

I have a shitty Advanced alt. NO issues. Rev it to 7500 everyday. DD 75 miles a day. Temps have been in the 90*+. 14.5 at idle, and during a pull.

So. To sum it up. If your car is running fine, with no issues. A Saturn alt will be fine.

 

[Yamahaulin]

I've not even used a Saturn alt yet, but my 3" dp gets within 3/4 of an inch from alt so it will die soon. I already have the relocation just waiting for alt to die so I can put on 200 amp sat piece

 

[92nolatist]

I've had enough of this alternator, it didn't work right as a 1 wire; had a 3 wire installed, still doesn't work right. It won't charge at idle and it just took 10 mins of driving for it to turn on fully, my lights and gauges were flickering then finally it came on steady. F**k this think, im gonna get a Canada spec alt.

 

[jls_frog]

Any update on the bracket for a normal installed Saturn alternator?

 

[b00stedAWD]

I've had enough of this alternator, it didn't work right as a 1 wire; had a 3 wire installed, still doesn't work right. It won't charge at idle and it just took 10 mins of driving for it to turn on fully, my lights and gauges were flickering then finally it came on steady. F**k this think, im gonna get a Canada spec alt.

Did you add additional ground wire to the alternator? I've added 4 gauge ground wire from alt to chassis and that helped low voltage issue with saturn alternators. My voltage does not see anything below 14 volts. It stays 14.2 to 14.7 volts even at 100*+ weather.

 

[92nolatist]

Yea I did, I have 4gauge on both the ground and power cable, but its just not operating properly. I even have the sensing wire hooked up correctly at the battery junction because that's where most of my wires are hooked to.

 

[b00stedAWD]

Is your battery located in the hatch?
I've also used the junction block even when my battery was located in the back. This seems to cause low voltage issue also. So, I routed my power wire from alternator straight to battery and from battery to fuse box in the engine bay.

 

[92nolatist]

nope, its still in stock location. my junction is on my positive terminal. I think its a problem with the alternator itself and not anything I did.

 

[jls_frog]

What size belt is needed to use the small 6-rib pulley form motor city with a 7bolt block. I read some people said .5 inch shorter, so i just wanted to ask. Thanks

 

[turboglenn]

The only brackets i've come up with that are able to support the load and not give (as well as looking nice instead of a piece of plain steel like the OEM ones) are a set i cstom make with turnbuckles and certain heiom joints but they are so expensive to make that i decided not to invest in making a bunch of them and getting stiucksitting on an investment, I'm making one right now but i'm waiting on fresh taps in LEft thread to come in, they seem to dull so quickly when you use the sh!t out of them

 

[92 GSR-4]

Just a quick note to anyone planning to purchase the Motor City Reman alternators. Use coupon code MCR5 for a 5% discount. I found it on a Google search and it worked for me.

 

[jcarmichael]

I don't know if this has already been posted but I want to restate it if it hasn't been. So I am doing a buddy's 2g saturn alt. swap this entire week. originally I hadn't grinded enough off the alt. to get the 39 inch belt to fit so I went to a 39.5 belt. don't do that after fighting with it that last cpl of days, grinding and grinding more. I finally realized the pulley wasn't spinning because the alt. was needing tightened so much, that the alt. was digging into the oil filter housing and causing the coils to have so much pressure on them it was keeping the alt. from spinning. long story short I forced the 39 inch. belt on it problem solved. so just in case some one does a search on this thread.

SATURN ALTERNATOR WON'T SPIN CHECK TO MAKE SURE ITS NOT PUSHED UP AGAINST THE OIL FILTER HOUSING WITH TO MUCH PRESSURE ON IT FIRST, AND USE A 39 INCH BELT ON A 2G

 

[92 GSR-4]

I was able to use a 38" belt on my 6-bolt. This also cured my issue of the 1g alternator sitting on the lower intercooler pipe/coupler when tensioned.


The only problem I'm having is that the stock tensioner bolt is far too short. I would say I had to cobble up a setup with about an 8" long bolt. Not only that the 12mm bolt/nut combo I had to attach the threaded "block" for the tensioner to the alternator is dangerously close to the alternator belt. Is anyone else having this issue?

 

[jcarmichael]

I was able to use a 38" belt on my 6-bolt. This also cured my issue of the 1g alternator sitting on the lower intercooler pipe/coupler when tensioned.


The only problem I'm having is that the stock tensioner bolt is far too short. I would say I had to cobble up a setup with about an 8" long bolt. Not only that the 12mm bolt/nut combo I had to attach the threaded "block" for the tensioner to the alternator is dangerously close to the alternator belt. Is anyone else having this issue?

on the 99 gsx I just did we flipped the block upside down to where it looked like an upside down house, it was close to the alt fan blades so for safety I grinded it some, the nut and bolt where sort of close to the belt but not close enough to be a real issue. the 38 must have been an adventure, we had to get the belt half way on the crank and spin the crank to get it the rest of the way on with the 39.

 

[92 GSR-4]

I was able to walk a 38" belt on it without too much issue. I think there might be a difference in the 6-bolt / 7-bolt engine and the dimensions of the alternator mounting or something.


On a side note, I purchased a 39" belt to get me by for the weekend. It fit extremely easily and I was happily boosting in no-time! I'll go back to the 38" belt once my longer, grade 10.9 bolt comes in.

The only issue is that when I first cranked the engine up, I was getting 14.3v and once I took it for a drive I was seeing low 13's/high 12's. I'm not sure what the issue is. My wire configuration is as follows:

CS Type Alternator with the Dorman 85854 plug

ALT PLUG >>>>> DSM Harness

L Wire (Brown) >>>>> Black/yellow wire (it used to go to the ALT plug)

S Wire (Red, 12g) >>>>> Ran 12g wire to my factory dist block off the pos. terminal of the battery. Specifically to my 30 amp fuel pump breaker ( I used to have ABS, so now I use that slot for my fuel pump re-wire)

Charging Cable >>>>> 4g wire to the 80Amp fuse in the fuse box, then 4G to the pos terminal.

Any ideas? I'm going to ground the alt tomorrow from the alt case to the chassis and see if that helps.

 

[Killa_dsm]

Ended up installing my new autolite saturn alternator I got from a friend yesterday. I wired everything up following all the directions posted. With the "L" wire to the stock plug and my 16gauge "S" wire to my battery. It was working great with a consistent 14.1 volts at idle until later that night. I noticed that the dash brake light and battery light were coming on dim intermediately. I got the car home with the smell of something burning. So I pop the hood to see the factory 2x 8gauge power cables have burned through the rubber protector.

I do know that the dash brake light and battery light can indicate a bad voltage regulator as stated here. But my concern is that its a brand new autolite alternator, and the fact that the power cable connected to the alternator got so hot that it burnt threw the rubber protector and a bit of the wire itself. Could a bad voltage regulator do this to the actual power cable on the alternator? I'm kind of bummed since the alternator didn't even last a day, and don't want a unreliable setup thats going to fail this easily.

I did have a bit of load on the alternator. I had my headlights, heater fans and music playing.

Any thoughts?