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Alternator swap on 3.4 tech thread.

66K views 91 replies 24 participants last post by  pirateblktaco 
#1 · (Edited)
THE PREDICAMENT- I recently installed a new stereo system as well as some aux. lights and a few other items that were apparently to much draw for my little ol' alternator. Now granted its prob the original alternator and what not but anyway it crapped out.

THE SOLUTION(S)
- HOLY CRAP! Are there a lot of options out there for upgrading an alternator and it never ceases to amaze me how parts from different vehicles can be adapted with little or no modification...I digress. So I looked into aftermarket "HO" alternators but at 300-500 dollars those really weren't an option. I also looked into having my alternator reman'd with a amp-up kit which would cost around 100 dollars and was a very possible solution until I realized my roomates truck whose I was driving since mine crapped, his tags expire on OCT 31ST and after that I can no longer get on base and to work. So what I settled on was a swap to a GM alternator with a higher stock output. Ther are many GM alternators that will work I wont get into the list, what I chose to use was one for a 1995 CADILLAC DEVILLE WITH THE HEATED WINSHEILD, it has a 120 amp idle output and 140 amp at highway speed (almost double my stock alt.). You can get the same one from a junkyard for cheaper at a junkyard but its like my dad always said when working on cars, "THE BITTERNESS OF POOR QUALITY REMAINS LONG AFTER THE SWEETNESS OF LOW PRICES IS FORGOTTEN"

I believe the pictures pretty much speak for themselves I will go into detail where needed and answer any questions.



This is the part number for the alternator I used from advanced auto. You can get the one W/out heated windshield but the one with it was 25 bucks cheaper and thats why i chose it.


Pulley is about the same size and has a cooling fan attached


Just a tid of a size difference.




The GM has the same 12 and 6 attachment points but the 12 oclock one is a quarter inch shorter

Just a few washers and viola same size :D. Be sure and put the washers on the inboard (as pictured) side of the mount for proper belt alignment.

As I said installation is straight forward no modification of brackets needed no :saw: or :welder: unless your into that sorta thing. me, I love bolt ons.

WIRING-


You will notice the GM alternator has an "xtra" prong DO NOT PANIC. This can be easily remedied with the simple purchase of a GM pigtail, advanced auto P/N-85854. It will have a red wire, black wire and a brown wire (dont ask why there is 4 prongs and 3 wires I dont know). Your stock harness will have a red wire, white wire and a yellow wire. You will connect the brown wire from your GM harness to the yellow wire (idiot light) on your stock harness. Secondly you will loop the thick red wire from the GM harness to the BATT post on the back of the alternator, i used a simple crimp-on hole connector. The black wire from the GM harness is not used, again I don't know why. You will also need to switch out the elec. fitting on the thick wire coming from your battery to a bigger one cause the post on the GM is bigger


I did not totally cut my toyota harness off just snipped the wire I needed and tucked it out of the way incase I ever get caught somewhere and someone has an extra stock alternator.


Belt is routed the same as stock but the GM alternator is a six groove so you have a couple extra grooves, not sure if it will jump but I keep a pretty good eye on my belt tensions and what not so im not worried.

TOTAL INVESTED
GM 140amp re-man alternator- 124.99 advanced auto
GM HARNESS- 8.99 advanced auto
subtract from that 10% for the MILITARY DISCOUNT advanced offers
~ 120 BUCKS TOTAL

I will now take questions and comments from the class.
 
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#2 ·
belt looks flush up to the inside of the pulley... probably not a problem.
but could wear the belt if it drags some.

maybe space that 1/4" on the forward side. Or an 1/8 on each side ?

look forward to a follow up... after some seat time.
 
#4 ·
Quote:

GM pigtail, advanced auto P/N-85854. It will have a red wire, black wire and a brown wire (dont ask why there is 4 prongs and 3 wires I dont know). Your stock harness will have a red wire, white wire and a yellow wire. You will connect the brown wire from your GM harness to the yellow wire (idiot light) on your stock harness.

Cool idea. My stock alternator is about to die. Looking through this site, I had a feeling I would stumble upon something along the lines of what I want to do.

I have a few questions:

1. Are you saying that you only used one wire (yellow) from the stock harness?

2. What did you do with the 2 other wires in the stock harness?

3. Are you running 2 batteries?

TanxBra'
 
#6 ·
Boyle future technology is the company that did a few of the guys from thiss site from what i read (cant remember which thread). he will do your alternator for ~100 bucks or send you a ready to bolt in one for around 200 i believe dont quote me though cause I never actually called them. Other companies are power master also excessiveamperage.com has some.

1. Are you saying that you only used one wire (yellow) from the stock harness?

2. What did you do with the 2 other wires in the stock harness?

3. Are you running 2 batteries?

TanxBra'
1. yes I only used the one wire (yellow) from the original harness.
2. i capped them taped them and left the there along with the stock harness.
3. Not yet but when I get to my sliders and a winch I will deff look into a dual battery set-up.

UPDATE

So I've been running the alternator about a week and here is my short term update. Belt has stayed tight, no signs of excessive wear from where it is sittin at on the pulley. May be placebo but, truck seems to have a better powerband at night when I have my headlights on and my stereo runnig. before it seemed kinda sluggish when there was a lot of draw on the system. But overall no problems seems to be running like a champ and I am super happy with my investment.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for to reply and post. This is happening to my truck as soon as I am back from vacation. I just hopes it starts when I return for the drive home from LAX to San Diego.

One more question:

Did you try to install the original pulley?

TanxBra'
 
#9 ·
Pulley Bore on CS-144

GM CS-144 bore diameter for the the pulley is 17mm. The toyota is 15mm. I just did this change. :)
 
#11 · (Edited)
edit again.... do you think any CS-144 alternator will work as long as the mounting holes are at 12 and 6 O clock? specifically the CS-144 250amp dual rectifier? i got a 1998 3.4L ext. cab

thanks for the write up btw.
 
#13 ·
Hey it SHOULD work just the same. I say should cause I dont wanna be held responcible for anything I say if you do it make a tech thread about it for others out there.

Is this alternator less prone to getting mud and shit all up in it? I know the Toyotas have the big vents.. sucks when a lot of debris gets in there.
My caddilac one deff doesnt have the huge open areas the stock alternator has, the only real open area are just behind the plastic outer fan and i think mud would be hard pressed to make it passed that.
 
#18 · (Edited)
still waiting for delivery of the alternator. should be here in the next couple days.

edit: this is what I got. thanks again for the write up and making it a no brainer for me pirateblktaco. I took that rectifier off the back. upgraded the rectifier inside the case. its a 250 amp alt that produces a 150 amp at idle. I test fitted it and I totally need a 1" or 2" longer belt. did you have to get a longer belt? I'm just asking cause I don't know if I should go 1" or 2" longer. (trying not to buy 2 belts to get it right)


here is a good explanation of the plug. you might have to keep clicking on the pic to get it to a size that's readable.
 
#21 ·
I just replaced my stock alternator on the 97 tacoma 4x4 ext cab with the 1995 Cadillac Deville one, pretty easy install. This was in order to run a 1500.1 kicker amp on 2 12 l7s. So everything was gravy untill I cranked it up tonight and blew the alternator fuse, which is 80 amps. Does toyota sell a 120-150 amp alternator fuse that will be interchangeable with mine 80 amp spot?
 
#23 ·
When you say upgrade the wiring harness, are you saying the lead going from the alternator to the fusebox? I got the 120a Alt fuse today a toyota and installed it already.

Also, the only time it would trip the fuse is when the alternator is charging at or past 80 which happaned to be when I was banging the shit out of my system. amps*volts=watts so to blow 80a the system was only putting out 1160 watts @ 14.50vdc.

Well Im not sure what to do at this point, I didn't know running a 1500.1 kicker on 2 subs would require this much to run.
 
#25 ·
Dude that's awesome you blew that fuse from running that much power. NICE! :D

one from the alternator to the fuse box where you changed that fuse at. Might as well do the other side of the fuse to the battery as well...... of course that's easier said than done. I'd like to see pics or read explanations of people doing this with out ruining the fuse box or its integrity to keep water out and which terminals they used to land wire inside the fuse box. There is very little room and I'm talking using 1/0 gauge.

you "might" get away with just changing out that wire and not the fuse ..."MIGHT" that's considering what pirateblktaco just said... but pirateblktaco would have to be drawing the same amount of current you are for that to hold up and if you're drawing more current than pirateblktaco you may have to stick with the new fuse up size.

didn't you already change the wire and the terminal on the back of the alternator?
 
#26 ·
I admit I'm not running 1500 I'm at around 1000 with one 12 so I must be just below the treshhold, and saying that I have to ask the question.......WHY THE F$%^ ARE YOU RUNNING SO MUCH POWER lol that is insane in a little ext cab like ours I could vibe my truck to pieces if I really turned my 12 up but I'm not the "bumpin" type. And please don't take this the wrong way I'm not bein a dick just sayin if its gunna require so much extra work is it really worth/necessary to run that much power?
 
#28 ·
X2 or 3 or however many......

A fuse's only purpose to exist is to be the weak point in a system. If the Amp rating on your fuse is slightly lower than what your circuit will require then it will be the first to fail and you should have a fairly quick and easy repair.

As you have just increased you electrical systems weak point to 150% of what it was before. I have to strongly agree that a wire upgrade should be done ASAP to avoid more dangerous failures.

You have a great potential for fire if you are pulling more current through the wire than it is designed for.

Over Amp = Heat
Heat = Melted plastic on wire
Melted plastic on wire = Less or No insulation
No Insulation = Sparks against frame
Sparks = Big fire and no more Taco for you
:2cents:
 
#29 ·
I get that, but Im pretty sure the only wire I need to upgrade aside what i have done is 2 gauge from the alt to the fuse block, to the battery. If my amp is pulling 1500 watts it will drain the battery and require the alternator to pick up the slack, from the alternator the power flows 2 feet aprox through wire to the fuse block, where it goes directly through the alternator fuse (120 amp sence 80 amp fuse would have blown at 1160 watts well before reaching RMS) and through another piece of 1-2 feet of wire to the battery where it will go down my 2 gauge battery power wire through the 150amp circuit breaker to the amp.

So the wiring upgrade is roughly 4 feet of 2 gauge which should be one of the easiest upgrades iv done in the past week to run this setup.
 
#30 ·
sweet!
take some pics of how you land those wires in the fuse box and show us how easy it really is.:D It's too tight of a fit in there to land a 1/0 gauge terminal with out butchering the fuse box and I'm guessing that will be the same for a 2 gauge terminal. I'm still trying to discover my options cause I won't be butchering my fuse box.

I don't know maybe your fuse box is different than mine...
 
#32 ·
Hey, i did this mod about a year ago and i still have all the pics, once i get home, ill post some pics tomorrow or my install and show the wiring upgrades. i gotta find'em now. -Frost
 
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