Overdue update
Wow, so where do I begin, there's been so much going on lately that my poor little thread has been neglected even though I've been working on Dora. This will be more of project based rather than chronologically based. I'll start with the alternator.
I found the pulley loose before so I wanted to set up my belt alignment better so that I wouldn't have to use as many spacers behind the pulley hoping I could get more thread engagement to keep the pulley tight. It had a little wear on it from slipping but it looked good enough to try again. I needed to get it further forward so I modified the mounting ear on the alternator to move it forward.
I moved a spacer in the top mount to close in the gap when I reduced the thickness of the alt ear.
Then I used some washers on the bottom mount.
Then a week or two later I found the pulley wobbly thinking the bearings were now shot. I pulled it off and found that the pulley nut had loosen and let the pulley run not parallel with the shaft causing it to dig into the shaft. The shaft was toast and the pulley hole wasn't looking so good either. I hit the JY and got another one. Took it to a shop to test and got another 8-groove pulley (not easily found, but where I got the last one). While at the shop my car got backed into. It was only cosmetic but something that was going to take more time out of my tight schedule before out trip to Cali. Anyways the alternator tested good and with a new pulley in hand I took it home. I wrestled with the 6-groove pulley finally getting it off. When I got the pulley the guy behind the counter gave me a couple of spacers so I decided to try those and not modify the ear on the newer alternator. I got it all back together and the belt ran well but now I got no charge. To speed up troubleshooting I removed the internal regulator from the toasted shaft alt and swapped it in the replacement alt. For some reason the previous alt worked wired as is and once I got that all back together in the replacement it was charging again.
So speed up to running the Dusy trail I started getting some squealing and attributed that to the dusty conditions on the trail and me being last. It still worked fine but I had and intermittent squeal now and again. Pulley was checked and was tight.
WARNING: Storytime.
Speed up to the final trip home to Oregon and at about 70 miles from home we get a weird smell in the cab. It smelled like someone left their emergency brake on and with a couple of cars in tow around us I figure it was them but since I woke up uneasy that morning for some reason I kept checking all my gauges and everything was in check. Temps were good and we were getting good voltage. The smell disapated but didn't leave and then changed to an electric smell. Scanning all the gauges over and over I could not see anything wrong and nothing "felt" different either. There was a rest stop coming up so we decided to pull over, stretch the legs and pop the hood. Looked around and found some metal dust starting to paint the alt. I figured the pulley was loose and it wiggled so I got out the tools and tightened it back up. When I started the truck it squealed so I shut it off and had
start it while I looked. The belt spun but the alt did not. Next I pulled the belt to see if the alt would spin and it would not budge. Well... time to pull it out and see if there was anything I could do, granted this was after 10 hrs on the road with the end in sight.
So I yanked it and disassembled it on the sidewalk as dark clouds gathered around and big drops started to nail the ground. Perfect. I found the front bearing to be fried. Usually bearing consist of balls running in a track in a circle. There were not enough balls to complete the circle and those left were no where near round anymore. It was pointless to see if anyone at the stop had a spare alternator bearing and that wasn't a part I had planned on carrying so I needed to come up with a solution. Since I hardly need any juice to run the motor (just a single 12v source to my fuel shut off solenoid) I really didn't need and alternator to make it home. I did however need my water pump and without the alt I couldn't route the belt. I tried Mcgyvering a spare belt by shortening it and wrapping it around the water pump but that was a pointless endeavor. A crusty old guy came over to see what I was doing and after he repeated some saying 3-4 times I figured I was on my own.
Then just as we started calling people for help a family man from alaska asked if I needed to get some parts. I happily accepted his offer and we were off in his minivan with his family to the next town to grab a new alternator.
and kids were going to stay with the truck and it was much better that we stopped at a rest stop so the kids could run around instead of on the side of the highway. After I left a kind older couple after explaining that they were just about to come over and offer help when they saw me take off invited my family into their RV for sandwiches and to watch a movie. Using her judgement and feeling good about the offer my wife took the kids over (they were parked behind us) and they were cared for.
We called a few places as we were driving to the next town and found one. I brought mine in pieces to match up. I asked if they had anyway to remove the 6-groove pulley that came on the alt with the 8-groove I had. Luckily he still had an impact gun in back and the nut zipped right off-I need to get me one of those!. The problem we had was getting the 6-groove off. We tried a variety of things and a couple of "store" tools with no luck. I even tried to see if they had any 6-groove belts my size so I could use this 6-groove pulley. No luck. Then with one more bit of inspiration he grabbed an allen head socket (there is an allen head spot in the shaft) and a hammer. We clamped the pulley in the vice not caring because I wasn't going to use it anyways and started to pound. Pieces of that socket were chipping off but there was progress and with enough determination we got that pulley off!! The socket was far from reusable and I offered to pay for it but he refused. We got the 8-groove on and the shaft looked like it might not be long enough but I told him to impact the nut on and all threads just engaged so I paid for the alternator and we jetted back to the rest stop.
The RV gentleman gave me some light since it was now dark and I hooked it all back up. It started up and the belt rode fine but I was not getting any charge. I didn't care and with it being cool now I wasn't going to need the fans and since my lights suck anyways I wasn't going to be able to tell the diffence. I figured that I have two batteries so if one didn't last I could switch to the other. No problems the rest of the way home and we arrived home after spending 15 hrs on the road. The trip should only take 11-12 hrs which includes several stops for kid purposes so we were tried.
I checked voltage on the main battery the next morning and it was 12.20 so it was still pretty strong. I let Dora sit for a week while I went to work and had a chance to research my alternator some more. I found a pinout for the connection (this has been ripped from some monte carlo site):
CS144
S = Sense
F = Failure (Indicator)
L = Lamp
P = Pulse
The 'S' connection connects to a remote voltage sense location. As it sounds, the alternator uses this connection to sense the remote voltage to determine if it's sagging (more current required), or not (less current required).
The 'F' connection is the failure indicator. It normally would go to a alternator failure indicator in some setups (as opposed to an alternator lamp).
The 'L' connection is the lamp connection. The 'lamp' refers to the typical idiot light for an alternator. This connection requires switched (ignition) voltage through between 35 and 350 ohms of resistance. If the alternator sees below 35 ohms of resistance, the CS alternator will fail eventually. If this is less than the 35 ohm minimum requirement for the CS alternator, you need to add a resistor in series with this wire, to the 'L' lamp connection. I chose a 40 ohm 5 watt resistor. As long as you keep the total resistance between 35 and 350 ohms, you should be ok. If in doubt, measure the resistance of your wire to ground with ignition off to determine your car's baseline resistance.
The 'P' connection is not used in our application. It's a pulsed output that connects to a tachometer in some applications.
My system was wired for an SI series and I simply bought an adapter to connect to the CS series. It turns out that this adapter was connected to the wrong pins so I wired up a CS connection and eliminated the SI interface. The problem was that I was connected to the 'F' when I need to be connected to the 'L.' I also tested for ohms and got less than 25 ohms so I soldered in a 100ohm resistor into my 'L' line to meet the resistance requirements. Once I got that cleaned up and hooked back up the alt charges like it should. So for now my alternator is working and my system is now directly wired for a CS144.
More project updates to come.
) and know exactly what are you talking about ..
