Upgraded alternator in 13bt to a CS144

[Captain Caveman]

I got tired of dismal lighting, slow windshield wipers, a running voltage of 13.2v with no load, and power door locks that weren't so "power". I also wanted electric fans, a decent stereo, real light from my headlights, and a voltmeter that stays well above 12.8v. I knew that in my current configuration, I could never have a winch, so I did what every mud eating fool does around here, I searched thinking that someone has to have done this and written it up. So I searched, and I searched. I didn't come up with anything, which, quite frankly surprised me.

The hardest part about this upgrade, is figuring out how to generate vacuum considering the OEM vac pump is piggybacked onto the anemic alternator. So my first purchase was an electrical vacuum pump.
http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/vacpump.jpg
It is noisy, but maintains the correct amount of vacuum for brake boosters. Kinda spendy.

Then, I purchased the CS144 alternator that is rated at 120A and a pigtail. I got that on ebay too:

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/alt.jpg
It is twice the rated output of my existing alternator. For the pigtail and CS144 it was about $80 to my door. Nice.

With alternator in hand, I realized that the pulley I had was too big, so back to ebay I went for this:

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/pulley.jpg
sexiest **** thing under my hood at this point!

I didn't want to jeopardize my ability to return to the "factory" alternator (as factory as you can get in an '88 FJ62 with a 13bt in it), so I had to make a new lower bracket. Turns out, it was really simple. I used two 4" sections of 3/16" angle iron and welded them together to form a "T" shape. I then welded on some 2" x 1/4" flat bar to extend the mounting area out a little forward and away from the engine block. Then I had to figure out how to bolt the lower CS144 mounts to the lower bracket. With some 1" x 3/16" flat stock, I created a piece of C-channel by bending the flat bar in 90 degree bends leaving 2" between the tabs. This piece would later be welded to the lower bracket and for my purposes, I called it a c-bracket.

With the new alt mounting requirements and pulley, the body of the alternator had to be slightly more forward than the original. It turns out, that the face of the CS144 only had be 3/16" of an inch more forward to compensate for the new pulley. Using the 3/16" stock, I made a washer and mocked in the CS144 with the upper bracket so I could measure and mark where I needed to weld on the lower C-channel. With everything eyeballed into place and measured at least a dozen times, I marked the lower bracket where the c-bracket needed to be welded on.

Here is a crude drawing (not to scale):

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/bracket-1.jpg

With everything welded together, I had to block the oil ports that fed oil to the factory vacuum pump, which I just used a short bolt with a copper crush washer in place of the banjo bolts. You can't see them here because they are under the oil filter.

As a bonus, I found a test port that was threaded at 1/8-27

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/IMG_6429.jpg
which is what I needed for my ISSPRO oil pressure gauge.

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/IMG_6437.jpg

Now, my idle voltage is 14.4v with no load, and 13.8v as loaded as I can get it. My headlights are ultra bright, the power door locks work better now that the batteries are charged to a higher voltage, and when the windshield wipers are running, the voltmeter is oblivious.

Here is the back of the CS144:

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/IMG_6427.jpg

The vac pump installed

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l506/adamrmathis/IMG_6432.jpg
The rag is over the exhaust of the pump making it slightly less noisy. Redneck engineering if you ask me!

Another shot from the driver front:

 

[roma042987]

Awesome writeup! Make another bracket I'll buy one!

 

[84bj60]

This bracket will work on a 3b I assume?

 

[Captain Caveman]

Awesome writeup! Make another bracket I'll buy one!

Thanks. I made mine with angle grinders, a drill press, and a Lincoln AC225 stick welder. While the design is exceptionally simple, it took forever and some of my welds are less than stellar in appearance. Let me think about it and also see if there is more interest. I'll likely build another just to publish the measurements for the next guys.

This bracket will work on a 3b I assume?

I don't know all of the exact differences between the 13bt and the 3b to tell if it is the same alternator and mounting brackets. Perhaps someone here can enlighten us.

 

[DillonOnTheCoast]

Well I am quite jealous.

I thought a simple rebuild would be less work/risk than new brackets & electric vacuum pumps but at least in my case that was oh so wrong.

 

[Dirtgypsy]

Great write up man! Glad to see it finally working out for you. Lots of time into this one but well worth it. So jealous of the amps! My rebuild was $$ and I still only got 80a out of it.

Clint

 

[cicak]

good job and great way to get rid of the 40AMP factory alternator.

Had the same issue in my BJ75 until we put a 105AMP alternator into it. The air cond flattened the battery .

 

[Captain Caveman]

I've had it back up and running for a while with the alternator and electric vacuum pump and while the alternator is fantastic, I am not impressed with the vacuum pump. The pump itself will draw down to 22inhg quite well, but the controller is a little intermittent and sometimes won't shutoff for 10-15 mins. Maybe I have a bad sensing unit, because even after adjusting it down to 18inhg, it still is intermittent.

I also didn't like the amount of noise and vibration the electric pump caused. I think it is excessive considering I can feel and hear it over a diesel engine.

So I go to looking for a mechanical vacuum pump and found a pump that was fitted to the 7.3L IH diesels found in early 90s Ford trucks. The service manual stated it would draw down to 20inhg withing 30 seconds. My testing shows it more like 8 seconds - maybe because of the smaller diameter pulley I installed on it.

At any rate, in order to install this thing, I had to fabricate another bracket in order to house the VP below the IP next to the crank pulley as pictured below. I used the same pulley as is on the alternator, but I had to modify that a little bit. I drilled and tapped to holes to secure the pulley with set screws. A I also ground a flat spot on the pump shaft to seat the set screws.

The power steering belt needed to be longer. From Napa, the factory belt is P/N 25-22607 which is 62.25 inches outside diameter. The longer belt I found was p/n 25-22657 which is 66.25 inches outside diameter.

Aside from the three bolts on the face of the bracket, I also fabricated a 4th mounting point (unseen in the photo) that attaches to the side of the block below the IP.

I've had this mechanical pump fully operational for a few days, and I love it. It is silent and I can open it up and change the gear oil on the cam mechanism. The brakes feel the same. Maybe in the future I'll look into hydroboost, but right now I am pretty happy. I need to take it apart and paint it, but I spent far too much time under it this weekend that I am happy letting it be for a while.

 

[Dirtgypsy]

Looks great Adam! You have some serious room in there to work. Time to stuff an air to air intercooler in there!

Clint

 

[Tapage]

Time to stuff an air to air intercooler in there!

X2 ..

Move your rad back and go big in your IC in front ..

BTW I'm looking to upgrade my old 2H alt .. too ..

 

[Captain Caveman]

X2 ..

Move your rad back and go big in your IC in front ..

BTW I'm looking to upgrade my old 2H alt .. too ..

An intercooler is the next big project, but I am worried about the size considering the CT26 already seems a bit laggy on this motor.

 

[Captain Caveman]

This bracket will work on a 3b I assume?

So I've dug around looking at 3b alternator photos and I'm fairly positive that it is the same lower alternator bracket. The alternator was the cheap/easy part though. If you were to do a hydro-boost set up, then you could get away with a tiny cheap vac pump.

Awesome writeup! Make another bracket I'll buy one!

Tempting, but it took my pathetic backside forever to build the one I have. I'll think about this and if you get serious and buy the parts to do the conversion, I could be coaxed into it.

Well I am quite jealous. I thought a simple rebuild would be less work/risk than new brackets & electric vacuum pumps but at least in my case that was oh so wrong.

I see in your other thread that you finally have a working OEM unit. I was concerned that my factory vac pump would quit and I would be forced to either buy a new VP or do what I did on terms other than my own.

good job and great way to get rid of the 40AMP factory alternator. Had the same issue in my BJ75 until we put a 105AMP alternator into it. The air cond flattened the battery .

I was worried about the A/C, the stereo, and the future winch. What route did you take for a vac-pump (or did you find a 105A with attached pump?

Looks great Adam! You have some serious room in there to work. Time to stuff an air to air intercooler in there! Clint

Thanks Clint! I can almost stand in there now, which may come in handy if I'm ever able to go SOA.

 

[Tapage]

An intercooler is the next big project, but I am worried about the size considering the CT26 already seems a bit laggy on this motor.

are you doing some 1/4 mile pass .? if not you will be ok .. having bit more lag buy huge cooling ( lower EGT = more fuel room ) advantage ..

 

[Captain Caveman]

are you doing some 1/4 mile pass .? if not you will be ok .. having bit more lag buy huge cooling ( lower EGT = more fuel room ) advantage ..

It just doesn't build much boost until about 2000rpm. I need an IC, but there is the concern of compounding the issue.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Just a follow-up with recent changes made to my configuration...

The aluminum pulley that I used would not grab a solid seat on the alternator and, over time, would loosen up. As a result, it was tenuous at best and I just need reliability (who doesn't, right?).

The mechanical vacuum pump, while very capable also did not like the aluminum pulley, and would slip after a while and need re-tightening. Combine this with the diminished amount of contact between the belt and crank pulley, that when wet would slip, I've determined that utilizing this pump in this location with this pulley is not going to be a reliable alternative.

So what now, I ask myself staring into the engine bay...

Return to the electric vacuum pump, only this time, mount it down on the frame instead of up high on the quarter. Now I can barely feel the vibration or hear the noise of the pump. But how to control it? I found a micro-switch mated to an adjustable vacuum controller that allows for adjustment between 6-22inhg. I plumbed the switch into my el-cheapo vacuum gauge in the cab. For those looking to find said switch, I guess they are used in upgrade kits for 700r4 transmissions.

With the vacuum now being monitored, I then used the switch to interrupt ground. The relay is controlled switched +12v from an un-used "key-on" connector (I have lots of those considering my rig hosted a 3fe in its previous life) and then gave the relay a key switched 12V from an accy fuse panel I installed.

So now that vacuum is no longer an issue, I needed to fix that (censored) pulley. I found this pulley and used a little extra loctite. So far so great.

Since this pulley is much smaller than the factory alternator pulley, I'll need to see if I can find a shorter belt, but the plus side is that the alternator spins a little faster than normal at idle so I barely notice the voltage dip if I turn something on when at a stoplight.

I still want to go with a hydroboost set-up and will work to go that route, but in even then, I still need vacuum to actuate the shut-off switch and the AC idle up actuator, so this will need to be a long term solution.

 

[Slowerthanu]

Neat upgrade. I wonder if the local alternator shop in SLC could build me a 24V version.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Neat upgrade. I wonder if the local alternator shop in SLC could build me a 24V version.

Probably possible, since the CS144s were used in the late 80s and early 90s in their diesels. I'd really have to look to know for sure as mine has been fully converted to 12v.

I had great customer service from Henstrom Generators and Auto Parts (327E 3300S | 801-467-2590 no affiliation). They may be able to get you the info you need.