Alternators die after 5 minutes I bought a cs-130 from e-bay, it came with a wire adapter for the alternator and a jumper block for the regulator. Well it crapped out on me after a few minutes so I figured I just got ripped off. Got another one from a local shop, (MR. Alternator) and same thing. New battery, wiring harness etc. Any thoughts? How sensitive to heat are these things. My heater hose is very close to the alternator. Thanks
matt,matt,matt..... matt,heat is an alternators downfall.the cs IF built properly will perform fine.do you know if it is upgraded?also,what makes you think they are bad?a cs will charge the battery a lot quicker than a conventional unit.you should have 14+ volts at the battery.if they use run of the mill parts or salvage the rectifier thats not acceptable.mine are built for the abuse :TU: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=89861
They are pretty tuff when it comes to heat from the out side. The fan pulls very good air thought them. Sounds to me that it is working to hard from the beginning. Make sure the battery is good, all connection are good. and the mounting for the alternator are clean (paint removed etc.). Have a one-wire 100 amp on mine that works well (it also came from E-bay)
Jamie, battery by itself it 12.8 when the alternator worked it was 14.5ish. now its still 12.7 running but if I rev it up it drops to 11. Upon closer inspection the heater hose is actually touching it. What upgrades are done to an alternator? Thanks PS mini starter you sent me works like a champ!
if you read my sales pitch in my post,you will see the upgrades i do.housing,rectifier,regulator,internal fan,etc.did he have you wire the regulator plug,did it come with a conversion adapter?michael is correct on outside heat,its the heat the alternator itself generates i was refering to.his is a 12si,different animal.if your voltage drops when you rev it its not working.make sure your belt is not slipping also.if it was working too hard it should have been so hot you never could have touched it for a long time
Jamie, I checked trhe belt its good and tight. Here is the adapter I have And the jumper block As far as the load the only thing other than stock is HEI. The only reason I am using this alternator is to smooth out the firewall. Here is a better picture Thanks
Matt, I think you might have the green jumper wires wrong where the regulator used to be. I'm pretty sure it should be like this: Red ---> White Brown ---> Blue. Can someone else confirm? http://www.chevelles.com/techref/tecref14.html http://www.novaresource.org/alternator.htm Devon
Devon, Thats interesting. Also I didnt know the horn relay had something to do with it. I had mine unplugged to stop the buzzing when the door is open. I wonder if thats whats causing the problems. Also they talk about the alternator adapter having resistance (35 ohms), I checked and there is no resistance. Man I'm lost
An alternator, hot to the touch, in a brief running time, is a indicator of producing a great deal of current and that in turn causes the voltage to drop. This is probably an indication of a very bad, extremely high resistance connection of some sort. Found one like that on my ex son in laws car. Severely corroded connections in the wiring loom, I just by passed the loom with a number 8 wire. He'd gone through 3 alternators and kragan says they were not going to honor his returns any more. If it's wired correctly, this would be the root cause. Stick a DC amp probe on that sucker and see what the amp draw is?
Len, I have a VOM with a 10 amp scale. I connected the probes in series with the red wire on the alternator and got .07 I know that cant be right, thats like 70 milliamps. The harness is a new M&H so I don't think thats the problem. I checked my grounds and have close to 0 ohms. Cant say for sure if the alternator being hot wasnt caused by the heater hose touching it. I moved the hoses away but won't have another alternator till Monday.
Matt, if you had a high resistance, (much like an excessive load), you wouldn't see ground, you would see very high resistance. If your alternator is "going bad" after just a little bit, and it's too hot to touch, it's load. I doubt your heater hose could make it that hot in a short period of time. With your VOM, on the volts scale, and connected across the battery, you should see something like 14.5 volts give or take. If the voltage drops below 13.5 or so, that's a high resistance to ground connection, which, to the regulator, if your using one, is load. Ohns law, if your current goes up, all things being equal, then your voltage must come down. This tells the regulator to allow the alternator to put out more current, keeping the voltage at somewhere around 14 volts. Now, if your not using an external regulator, same difference, internal reg. in alternator is trying to max out the alternator. If your using a alternator with an internal reg. Disconnect the wire from the alternator, to whereever it goes, and connect a wire directly to the positive size of the batter from the alternator connection. Then watch the battery load. If it's O.K. high resistance load in wiring, if it's not.....beats me. I tried. Hope you get it.
Len, Just for my own sanity I hooked up the original alternator and external regulator. Solid 14.4 volts running. The only real load I have its the headlights, when I turn them on it drops to 14.3. I let it run for 10 minutes which is the longest its ever run, surface temperature on the alternator is 135. Im starting to think this conversion setup is fugazie.
matt,there are 2 different conversion harnesses.one for idiot light & the other for gauge.they both should have resistance wires as part of them if not the unit wont work correctly.one reason i stay away from them ou: have you asked the original seller about your problem?since you have gone thru 2 units i would suspect the conv. harnesss,i dont know much about them as i said,i dont use em,but can find out tomorrow for you.do you have a link to the ebay unit i can look at?harness also depends on which regulator he used :ball:
Jamie, I checked both harnesses (one at the alternator the other where the regulator was), neither one has any resistance. Hipoelectric sold me the alternator on e-bay, I bought it back in December so the link is gone now. The second one I got local because shipping cost would be almost as much as what the local guy exchanged it for. Had I known back then you were alternator guy as well as the starter guy I would probably not be having problems. Any information you can dig up on the conversion harness would be appreciated. Thanks
matt,this is from the company that makes the harness.they only make one,i dont know about the other it was years ago i had heard about it.they say they sell very few of them so chances are the one you got was self made o No: all this manufacturer does is alternator harnesses.they are da bomb in this catagory.the owner & i met years ago,he rewired my test bench before i bought it.compare the pic to what you have,this is a plug n play set-up,no rewiring at all :TU:
I think what may be missed here is the "other" use for the light bulb, or resistor. Its stated purpose is to "excite" the alternator field, creating an electromagnetic field used by the stator for charging the battery. Bypassing the bulb, or the resistor in the circuit causes the field to draw too much current all of the time, overheating the field, and burning it out. You must either have the resistor or the bulb to control the field current. Ray
One other thing to remember is that the CS 130 IS sensitive to heat, and most remanufacturers recommend recharging the battery before putting the new unit into use. The SI unit is fully upgradable, for about $40 to some 150 to 200 amps, without the heat sensitivity. Food for thought. Ray
Ray, Doesn't the configuration of the jumper block (shown above) keep the bulb in the circuit? I am using a new fully charged battery so I dont think thats an issue. When I had the dash out I replaced all the bulbs but I never really looked to see if it was on. I'll check it when I get home. Heat as I have said is an issue. The heater hose touching the alternator combined with the fact that I seem to be running a little hot (possible timing issue) is definatly a concearn of mine. If the general concensus is the wiring conversion is correct I might give it one more shot now that the hose is moved.
crap,i forgot to ask :error:i spent 15 mins talking to him as he kept answering other phone lines & i was trying to work.i will ask him tomorrow.better yet ill email him now!!! it should as the cs requires a different resistance.i know my test plug has a resistance wire in series with the light.if you can wait till the end of next month i'm going to seattle for a seminar & will most def get the updated skinney on the conversion.(just kidding)thing change so rapidly as manufactures come & go ou: someone allways has a better design & what you get used to,suddenly isnt available so i have to start at square 1 again.looks like the same plug setup you have,it should work.like ray said,the light MUST be functional,i assume it is since it works uzzled: at first. as far as building the si over 100 amps,not advisable :error: not designed for the heat disipation the cs is. :laugh: i wouldnt guarantee any si over 100 amps as far as i can :moonu: one.jmheo :TU:
