Need help with saturn alternator wiring

[Captain D]

I have a 92 GSX and I installed a modified 130 amp saturn alternator. The battery is not charging (11.5 volts on multimeter). I have the following wiring:

Saturn Pigtail: Red wire
Brown wire
Brown/White wire
Brown/Red wire

Mitsu Harness: Black wire
Black/Yellow wire

I connected the red saturn wire to the battery terminal and the brown saturn wire to the black/yellow wire on the mitsu harness. I also ran 4 gauge wire from the alternator to the fuse block and battery. What am I doing wrong? Does the alternator need to be grounded?

 

[BrokenTsi]

I know this is an old unanswered thread, but did you figure it out? And if you did, can you post the results for everyone?

 

[BLINKY619]

Yea i got the saturn alternator too... But its just sitting there cause i cant seem to figure out how to wire it...!!

 

[luv2rallye]

Maybe this will help: http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-electrical-wiring/272646-saturn-alternator-swap.html

 

[BrokenTsi]

It doesnt really. I've read it, I would like to see more details and installs from other people as well.

 

[BLINKY619]

yea it doesnt explain much....!!!!!

 

[luv2rallye]

All yellow harness wire goes to Saturn "F" terminal.

Black-white (it's black-yellow sometimes after fading) harness wire goes Saturn "L" terminal.

All you need to do is find out which wire on the Saturn connector is F and which is L. Just look at the connector and find out.

All alts use their case as ground which should be bolted to engine. Make sure one of your battery negative big cables goes under a starter mounting bolt head on tranny and cable goes directly to battery negative (not to frame first and then frame to battery - frame to battery should be its own separate cable.).

 

[Groundation]

I installed my saturn alt exactly according to that writeup that is linked to above, including connecting the large yellow wire to the F(black) wire on the saturn connector and connecting the small black wire to the L(black w/ white stripe) on the saturn connector.

The alternator ran fine like that, but my battery would constantly drain when the car was parked. I could also hear a high pitch whine noise coming from the alternator when the car was off and parked.

Someone else on this site did a writeup on how to properly wire up the saturn alternator, called "important: improvements on saturn alternator swap" (turboglenn) That shows how to properly wire up the saturn alt.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/cus...tant-improvements-saturn-alternator-swap.html

On my car I just have one wire hooked up to my alt. harness, the wire that connects to L. I will hook up the S wire eventually, but it runs and charges fine with just the one wire for now.

Good luck

 

[luv2rallye]

^^ Good writeup and good point. I knew about this writeup but didn't link to it because I thought it was only for a 2g. But looking closer I see some 1g guys have posts in there for their cars also. (The 1g alt is different than the 2g one).

 

[BrokenTsi]

All yellow harness wire goes to Saturn "F" terminal.

Black-white (it's black-yellow sometimes after fading) harness wire goes Saturn "L" terminal.

All you need to do is find out which wire on the Saturn connector is F and which is L. Just look at the connector and find out.

All alts use their case as ground which should be bolted to engine. Make sure one of your battery negative big cables goes under a starter mounting bolt head on tranny and cable goes directly to battery negative (not to frame first and then frame to battery - frame to battery should be its own separate cable.).

Thanks.

I have the JayRacing relocation kit so I have a few questions about this. JayRacing is saying to ground the alternator to the engine. I removed the paint or whatever it is on the bracket on the spots that it bolts to the engine block. Is this necessary, or just a good idea?

What is the BEST way to do the B terminal on the alternator? Extend the factory one? or run a new wire to the fuse block?

Shouldnt "F" be a switched 12v? If its not necessary but works the same, I would like to run a switched 12v for simply the ease of not having the extend or cut the stock yellow wire on the car. Since the alternator is in the back, I can run a nice new wire to an unused wire harness on the firewall.

Doesnt the factory ground from the starter bolt go directly to the battery anyways?

To sum it up, I can get away with only extending one wire off the original alternator harness, couldnt I? I can ground "L" (correct me if i wrong) to the engine block or chassis, cant I?

And red on the saturn harness is unused. I'm using the harness from Jay.

 

[Groundation]

For the B wire, which I believe is for the power wire that connects from the battery to the alternator, I would run a new wire and fuse. You could probably just run a wire from the alternator to the stock fuse if you wanted to.

How many amps is your saturn alternator? My saturn alternator is 200 amps, and I ran a 0 gauge wire from the alt. to the battery, with an inline fuse around 6" from the battery terminal. If your alt. is pushing more amps than the stock alternator, which it probably is, you should run a thicker wire than stock anyway.

You could just extend the "L" wire, and then run the "S" wire somewhere to monitor voltages (not necessarily necessary) and you should be up and running. I'm not sure about the grounding.

 

[luv2rallye]

Grounding the alt to the engine wouldn't hurt although it does nothing if it's already grounded through its frame. Of course if it isn't than you must ground it. I don't know about Saturn alts, like if they must because the Saturns use some vibration proof insulated mounting bracket or something so it isn't grounded. Scraping the paint and crud off its mounting bracket and bolts is always a good idea.

Making F be switched is a good and safer idea.

Yes the factory ground from the starter bolt is supposed to go directly to the battery negative however many people have mistakenly wired it wrong (like going to the body first and from there to battery which adds a small resistance which affects the starter voltage big time).

No you don't ground L (or leave it unconnected) or it won't work. L is used to turn on the alt dash light when the alt isn't putting out which is done by the alt grounding L and having L connected to one side of the light and +12v on the other side. It also MUST go to +12v through some resistance (the light bulb or generator relay) for the alts regulator to even turn the alt on.

 

[BrokenTsi]

For the B wire, which I believe is for the power wire that connects from the battery to the alternator, I would run a new wire and fuse. You could probably just run a wire from the alternator to the stock fuse if you wanted to.

How many amps is your saturn alternator? My saturn alternator is 200 amps, and I ran a 0 gauge wire from the alt. to the battery, with an inline fuse around 6" from the battery terminal. If your alt. is pushing more amps than the stock alternator, which it probably is, you should run a thicker wire than stock anyway.

You could just extend the "L" wire, and then run the "S" wire somewhere to monitor voltages (not necessarily necessary) and you should be up and running. I'm not sure about the grounding.

The alternator I got was advertised as 110amp I believe.
Ok, so for "B", I will replace with a new wire to the factory alternator fuse.

-switched 12v for "F"
-extend "L"
-ground the alternator case

 

[juvi1624]

The alternator ran fine like that, but my battery would constantly drain when the car was parked.

This is one of the problems with the GM alternator. I installed a relay connected to ignition power, but I don't remeber if I put it in the "F" wire or "L" wire. Before I went through the trouble of the relay though, I just had a toggle switch that I would switch on before I drove and off when I parked it.

 

[Groundation]

From my understanding, the writer of the original saturn alternator swap said to connect both the "L" and "F" wire on the saturn alternator. Then turboglenn did some more research and determined that both of those wires are not needed to be connected, as they both serve the same purpose, you only need one or the other, depending upon your wiring. He also recommends wiring up the "S" wire to monitor voltages so that the alternator knows when it needs to work harder or not so hard.

In my car, with the "F" wire connected, it would cause the alternator to be drawing power at all times, even with the car off. I disconnected the F wire and just ran the L wire and it has been running fine. You don't need to connect the F wire.

 

[BrokenTsi]

Here is the email I got from JayRacing:

The vehicle's Black-White wire goes to the alternator's terminal "L" (Brown wire on our GM Pigtail) and the vehicle's Yellow wire goes to the alternator's terminal "F" (Black wire on our GM Pigtail).

Alternatively, you can use a switched +12V source (like the FPR solenoid wire on the firewall) for the "F" wire as the GM/Saturn alternator will drain the battery over time even with the key off. The Red wire does not need to be connected. Also, make sure the alternator has a good ground path. The case needs to be grounded and sometimes the black anodize coating on our parts does not allow a good enough conduction, we recommend sandinf off the coating at the alternator and block attachment points or use split-lock washers to "dig in" through the anodize.

-------------------



Now, with this info, including 4 gauge wiring for "B" to the stock alternator fuse, should complete the install without issues. I am going to throw an extra ground wire to the starter bolt as well.

 

[luv2rallye]

^^ I agree with the above post.

 

[TSIfreek]

Here is the email I got from JayRacing:

The vehicle's Black-White wire goes to the alternator's terminal "L" (Brown wire on our GM Pigtail) and the vehicle's Yellow wire goes to the alternator's terminal "F" (Black wire on our GM Pigtail).

Alternatively, you can use a switched +12V source (like the FPR solenoid wire on the firewall) for the "F" wire as the GM/Saturn alternator will drain the battery over time even with the key off. The Red wire does not need to be connected. Also, make sure the alternator has a good ground path. The case needs to be grounded and sometimes the black anodize coating on our parts does not allow a good enough conduction, we recommend sandinf off the coating at the alternator and block attachment points or use split-lock washers to "dig in" through the anodize.

-------------------



Now, with this info, including 4 gauge wiring for "B" to the stock alternator fuse, should complete the install without issues. I am going to throw an extra ground wire to the starter bolt as well.

Im now currently doing the saturn install with the jay racings relocation kit. I am going to be wiring as above stated.
As for the B+ wire I am running 2 8 gauge wires to the fues box to replace the factory wire and running 1 4 gauge 100A fused to the battery +
As for grounds I have upgraded all engine grounds with 4 gauge wire and will be running a 4 gauge wire from the alternator body to the battery -
I also have a earth ground kit so I should be all good to go.
Wish I would have done this along time ago. I didnt know our alternators sucked so bad!!

 

[BrokenTsi]

I looked at the factory wire to the 90a fuse for the alternator. Its just 2 smaller gauge wires that share a ring terminal on the end. It really doesnt make sense to me, so i bought a single 4ga wire from Autozone for battery cables, and I ran it to the factory fuse. I havent had any issues yet, I get 14.3-14.5v all day.

Just posting this for everyone else who searches this.

I also didnt run any extra grounds anywhere. I just took a file to the Jayracing kit where the bolts go into the block, and where the bracket mounts on the block itself.

Intake manifold definitely has to come off. At least on my car it did, no way can you get in there and see what you're doing. And make sure you slip the belt over the pulley first, unless you massage your frame rail, there isnt even space to slip the belt past the pulley.

Also, FYI, I positioned the Jayracing kit so that the belt uses the outside of the crank pulley. In Jay's instructions, you have an option to do both, but I found using the outside of the pulley is best. This is what causes the alternator to be super close to the frame rail. So far so good!

 

[f4stunter]

I've been mounting the saturn alternator tonight and reading all the different posts on the wiring. After reading several contradictions I turned to the DSM service manual. According to it, the Yellow wire is "S" terminal, Black/white is "L" terminal and the 2 white are the "B" terminal. It would seem to me then the white wires mount to the back of the alt just like the factory alt. The Large Red wire labeled "S" on the CS pigtail should be wired to the yellow wire on the DSM and the Brown or "L" labeled wire on the pigtail should be wired to the black/white wire on the DSM. "F" should not be used. If this isnt the case then please explain why because I don't see how any other way can be correct. I plan to finish wiring it up this way tomorrow, however I have aways to go with the car before I'm able to verify this. If anybody knows with out a doubt im wrong in my thinking please post up so I dont make a unnecessary mistake.

 

[rarest_90_DsM]

Quick question what jays bracket are you guys using? I bought the relocation bracket for the dsm alternator a long time ago, now I'm thinking about doing the Saturn swap and was wondering if I can use the original relocation bracket made for the stock alternator or do I have to buy the Saturn kit from jays?

 

[BrokenTsi]

Just gotta get the shorter arm from Jay. He might charge you like 20 bucks for it.

 

[rarest_90_DsM]

Cool thank you for the info

 

[DROPthatCLUTCH]

Sorry for the bump. I'm having some problems with the wire and I'm wondering where the heavy yellow wires go to on the Saturn? Do they go to the post on the alt like the stock alt? I have them extended with 2 8g ATM. Thanks in advance.

 

[Paul@RTM]

Sorry for the bump. I'm having some problems with the wire and I'm wondering where the heavy yellow wires go to on the Saturn? Do they go to the post on the alt like the stock alt? I have them extended with 2 8g ATM. Thanks in advance.

Yes.