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This past weekend I finally got around to pulling my old alternator (which had a bad voltage regulator) and replacing it with the 100 Amp upgrade kit that I bought about 4-5 years ago. I learned a few things in the process and have one question.
1. Question: The instructions say to disregard/disconnect the orange wire (which I assume was a power wire) that was connected to the old alternator and instead replace it with the much larger gauge red wire that comes with the kit and hook this up to the starter solonoid. No problem. Simple and done. However, the instructions are silent about the little black ground wire. There is a new large gauge ground that goes to the ground on the starter bell housing, and I hooked that up, but it is unclear what to do with the little black wire ground that was on the old alternator. For now, I have not hooked it up. I also note that the connector will not fit the ground post on the new alternator, and there is insufficient metal to drill out the ring hole connector to make it fit, so I would need to put on a larger ring connector if I am supposed to actually use this wire. On a very quick test, the alterantor does appear to be charging the system without use of this little black wire, so I suspect it is to be disregarded (especially since it is a very thin wire and I already have a very large ground wire connected). However, if anyone knows for sure, I would appreciate the input.
2. What I learned:
a. The instructions are not very good.
b. The diagram did not match my new alternator, and the wiring can be confusing. The key thing to remember here is that the ring connectors on the main power line replacement cable is a different size than the replacement ground wire, and they only fit where they are supposed to go. In my case, the ground post was on the very edge of the alternator, whereas the power line was more toward the middle of the back of the alternator. The diagram showed both posts toward the middle-ish part of the back of the alternator.
c. You will need an impact wrench to remove the serpentine pully from the new alternator and probably to remove the v pully from the old. Otherwise, you will probably tear things up trying to get the blasted nuts off. An impact wrench makes it easy.
d. Like most manual tasks, a second set of hands is extremely helpful.
1. Question: The instructions say to disregard/disconnect the orange wire (which I assume was a power wire) that was connected to the old alternator and instead replace it with the much larger gauge red wire that comes with the kit and hook this up to the starter solonoid. No problem. Simple and done. However, the instructions are silent about the little black ground wire. There is a new large gauge ground that goes to the ground on the starter bell housing, and I hooked that up, but it is unclear what to do with the little black wire ground that was on the old alternator. For now, I have not hooked it up. I also note that the connector will not fit the ground post on the new alternator, and there is insufficient metal to drill out the ring hole connector to make it fit, so I would need to put on a larger ring connector if I am supposed to actually use this wire. On a very quick test, the alterantor does appear to be charging the system without use of this little black wire, so I suspect it is to be disregarded (especially since it is a very thin wire and I already have a very large ground wire connected). However, if anyone knows for sure, I would appreciate the input.
2. What I learned:
a. The instructions are not very good.
b. The diagram did not match my new alternator, and the wiring can be confusing. The key thing to remember here is that the ring connectors on the main power line replacement cable is a different size than the replacement ground wire, and they only fit where they are supposed to go. In my case, the ground post was on the very edge of the alternator, whereas the power line was more toward the middle of the back of the alternator. The diagram showed both posts toward the middle-ish part of the back of the alternator.
c. You will need an impact wrench to remove the serpentine pully from the new alternator and probably to remove the v pully from the old. Otherwise, you will probably tear things up trying to get the blasted nuts off. An impact wrench makes it easy.
d. Like most manual tasks, a second set of hands is extremely helpful.
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