Thread: Alternator Gurus...

Hey gurus, if there are any of you out there, lol.

I swapped in a CS144 into my 2000 GTP and all has been well for the most part. This tax season I replaced it and upgraded the replacement to a 200amp kit I picked up from Alternatorparts.com . The kit included a stator, rectifier, and new brushes. Everything went easy and it worked great, with one heated seat on, the stereo on (not too loud though), and the blow motor on it maxed out Orielly's tester at 99A at idle. The battery did test bad though, so I warranteed that out, so that's new, too. We got a pretty good snow storm so the car sat for a few days, but I remote started it to let it idle and warm up for 15 minutes. I finally got out of the driveway yesterday and made it to work. On the way home I noticed my lights dim really bad with the slightest load (fog lights, blower motor, small things). I figured it was just cold and waited til today to check it out. Same result. I took it down to oriellys and had them check it again and with nothing on but the engine it tested 52 amps...right about stock. I checked the voltage and in park, with nothing on at all I'm at 14.18v, turn the blower motor on low and it drops to 13.5v. Turn the headlights on, heated seat, etc. (simulating my drive home last night) and I was sitting at battery voltage.

I've been calling the guy at alternatorparts.com who is a really cool guy when he answers the phone... I was wondering if you guys have any idea what it could be...rectifier? Voltage regualtor? Belt is good and tight, and relatively new. Would a voltage regulator cause this?

Not sure what it ended up being, but I swapped all the stock stuff back into it and warranteed it out, then swapped the 200A stuff into it. All is well now, nothing dims the lights...except the stereo at full tilt, but that's a long story...

So how many alternators have you been through so far lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CS144s? 4, but 1 was the JY that took a crap, and the second wasn't really bad. So I've had 2 bad ones. If this one goes bad I'm just gonna buy a voltage regulator from quick start. There isn't much to these; Shaft\rotor, case, rectifier, capacitor, and voltage regulator\brushes. I have a spare rectifier, 2 capacitors, 2 brushes, and a spare stator.

This really is one of those overlooked upgrades by a lot of people. Everything works so much better. My heated seats get hot in seconds. Yesterday when I was digging my car out I got down to ice on the rear window, so I turned the rear defrost on. About 15-20 seconds later the ice was sweating and I slid it right off. That and the small things, e-fan don't dim the lights, blower motor is constant, all that jazz. the stock CS144 puts out 95+amps at 700RPM, with the stock 2.4 inch pulley. I mean come on!. Stock CS130D maxes out at 102amp, some max out at 125amp.

For those who don't know, the swap entails the plug for the CS144 (1 wire to splice), the alternator bracket from a 99 Camaro 3.8l, and the CS144. If you have a Gen V you'll have to grind a bit on the case, but that's it!

Ugh. It's back. I put a smaller pulley on it and it helped, but I think there is something wrong with the rectifier. I'm calling the Quick Start guys I bought the kit from again on Monday, here's hoping he answers the phone.