I will be replacing my stock alternator with a new CS alternator
This is going in my 86 GT that I have installed a SBC using an Archie kit

Brand Powermaster
Manufacturer's Part Number 47861
Product Line Powermaster Street Alternators
Summit Racing Part Number PWM-47861
Advertised Amperage Output 140 amps
Voltage Compatibility 12
Alternator Case Style GM CS130

The first thing I noticed about this alt is that it is smaller than the stock alt by about an inch or more. The mounting ears are not 180 apart from each other.
This is not a big deal as I will not be using a stock mounting bracket and will be making a new bracket to us the mounting holes that Archie puts on his front bracket for the AC compressor. I have some 1/4 steel that I will be cutting up to make the bracket. I will be doubling up to make the bracket 1/2 think when its done. That will give me the top part of the bracket and for the bottom I have a turn buckle so I can tighten the belt without using a pry bar.

I have to pick up a wire harness plug and diode for the trigger. I will be using the Check Engine light if possible, if not I will add a small red light below my volt meter.

I was kind of disappointed that the alternator wasn't a direct drop in replacement but in the long run I will be better off moving it to the new bracket. I hope to start work on it this Saturday and have it finished and back on the road by Monday morning.

That is a good upgrade. They do make a CS130 with the mounting holes 180 degrees apart.

quote Originally posted by Ang84Indy: That is a good upgrade. They do make a CS130 with the mounting holes 180 degrees apart.

Yeah what he said. Mine was a direct bolt-in replacement using Archie's bracket. Ray

I know but this one will work, I have been wanting to move it for a while now and this is a good excuse to get it done. Plus its a little smaller in diameter so it should fit better where the AC mount would go.
I have a box full of old mounts that I may see if I can make something work before I make something. I have plenty of steel that I can make what ever I need. I found some 3/8 flat bar that will do a better job so I wont have to cut the part out twice

Powermaster part number 47802 is the one that has the ears 180 degrees apart. Just put it into Trinten's car today...direct fit onto Archie's bracket. Just had to swap the pulley on it and rewire (complete new harness went in with it today).

The ones with the 180 degree apart mountings are the same one used in the V6 88 Fiero, but the ones with the 120 degrees apart are a lot more common, and will be easier to replace down the road. CS130's eat rear bearings, but they're still better than the 12SI's

My current alt cant keep up with the electric water pump and radiator fan. As soon as I turn on the fan it drops the volts down to 10 volts.

I should incorporate this swap into my engine swap.
I've got a 220 or so small body CS130 amp from my old yukon that ran the stereo.
Mine came from alterstart though,not powermaster.
You can buy a 140a alt from autozone in smallbody cs130,just look up a 97ish yukon-it came on the police package tahoe standard and is an option in the computer.
It's a regular upgrade guy's with chevy trucks do,IIRC no difference other than maybe connector orientation.
I can look it up at autozone tomorrow if anyone wants more info.

Hey Jake - I'll be watching your progress. Just found that my stocker SBC alternator is making some nasty noises today. I do not have an issue with "power" but the noise means it's on it's way out. Ithe the fan on, pump running and all the lights on, my voltage after market volt gauge reads 13 + voIts at idle. I want to upgrade to a higher amp setup as well just to be on the safe side with the electrical demand using the electric pump and fan on most the time. Keep us posted.

Pat

Bump for the rest of us.

I drove around tonight and found the right plug for my new alt. I couldn't find one with the built in resister so I will have to check my sense circuit and make sure it has the proper amount of resistance.
The connector is made by Dorman and the number is 85854

I was looking for the Resistor adapters: AC Delco: 8078 but no one had one so I will have to make due with what I have. If I had more time I would order one.

For now I will be running my sense wire from the fuse box to a red light and put it somewhere in my dash. If I get a wild hair I may pull the back of the dash and stick it in the check engine light hole.
The computer in this car is not used and doesn't have any power going to it so I wont need the check engine circuit the way it is anyway.

Tomorrow I will put the car up on stands and start taking measurements and pull the Archie bracket off and start working on a new low mount bracket like katatak came up with in his build thread.
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/F.../000108-13.html#p493

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: My current alt cant keep up with the electric water pump and radiator fan. As soon as I turn on the fan it drops the volts down to 10 volts.

Hi Jake, my .02 on alternator replacement.... A lot of manufacturers advertise large number amps. Unfortunately, most only produce that much amperage with high RPM. If your system is not keeping up with the draw, you need to find out what alternator can put out what you need at idle, or close to idle! You can request a graph from them, most will show 30>50 amps at idle. You'll find that healthy amps come on above 2400RPM, not fun sitting at a light watching the voltage needle drop.
I went through this years ago where my car was drawing huge amps at low RPM (3 rad fans,AC, heavy lights,fogs, stereo,etc). I finally had a custom alternator built... solved my problem. You could find an alternator from an ambulance... new there over $1K !
my .02
good luck

quote Originally posted by cowans: Hi Jake, my .02 on alternator replacement.... A lot of manufacturers advertise large number amps. Unfortunately, most only produce that much amperage with high RPM. If your system is not keeping up with the draw, you need to find out what alternator can put out what you need at idle, or close to idle! You can request a graph from them, most will show 30>50 amps at idle. You'll find that healthy amps come on above 2400RPM, not fun sitting at a light watching the voltage needle drop. I went through this years ago where my car was drawing huge amps at low RPM (3 rad fans,AC, heavy lights,fogs, stereo,etc). I finally had a custom alternator built... solved my problem. You could find an alternator from an ambulance... new there over $1K ! my .02 good luck

Thats why I picked this alt, at 2400 it should be putting out around 80 amps

What a pain in the ass, man I wish I had a drill press.

I have to brackets almost finished.

Still working on this just had some work conflicts and bad weather and haven't got back out to work on it.

I did get a bracket made up but I don't like it. I need to add something to the back of the bracket to keep the alt from twisting. The lower bracket will be the stationary bracket on my setup so I will probably run something to the back of the mount or up to the engine block.

Or I may scrap it all and start over with something a little different. Still thinking it through and planning my wire harness.

I have two different lights, one is an LED and the other is a regular filament light. I don't know if an LED will work or not. I have a variable resister to use in the circuit to get the correct resistance, once I have the circuit working I will read the resistance of the variable resister and replace it with the correct resister.

1. See CS130 and Watt Story in cave... They cover alot of things, like max vs idle watts.

2. CS130 only eat rear bearing if rebuilder use cheap bearing or you have a old OE alt. Good maker use good brand and upgrades the rear bearing.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

quote Originally posted by theogre: 1. See CS130 and Watt Story in cave... They cover alot of things, like max vs idle watts. 2. CS130 only eat rear bearing if rebuilder use cheap bearing or you have a old OE alt. Good maker use good brand and upgrades the rear bearing.

Your site has been the biggest help thank you. I went with the power master because it has had good reviews. It should last for a good long while, I don't plan on over driving it and its not as close to the header in the new location so it should handle the heat better.

quote Originally posted by theogre: 1. See CS130 and Watt Story in cave... They cover alot of things, like max vs idle watts. 2. CS130 only eat rear bearing if rebuilder use cheap bearing or you have a old OE alt. Good maker use good brand and upgrades the rear bearing.

The rear bearing in my AC Delco brand alternator failed after about 3-4 years, Bosch still working fine. Does Timken make a bearing for it?

Here is my bracket


I still have to run the wires and hook up the light.

quote Originally posted by RWDPLZ: The rear bearing in my AC Delco brand alternator failed after about 3-4 years, Bosch still working fine. Does Timken make a bearing for it?

Problem w/ Delphi/ACdelco... Who have current contract to make parts. Delphi and contractor has pushed to oversea and China... Alt can be made in US but "Made in USA" can still use sub-parts, like bearings, made in China. Read "Made in USA" means... 80-90% made in US, the rest...

Bearing source? Don't know... Try http://www.alternatorparts.com/

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: Your site has been the biggest help thank you.

Thanks.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

I have to sort out an issue with my harmonic balancer then I will update this thread.

Ok I sorted out the harmonic balancer issue and I'm back at this.

{rant}why can I buy a toggle switch and have a easy to read diagram.{rant}
I just want to turn it on and have power and have it light up. Stupid light.

Ok I will buy a simple on off switch in tomorrow and throw this china crap out.

Back to the build. I have the alt installed and I just have to run the new excite wire. I'm going to pull from the fuse box and run an idiot light. I have the light next to my fuel pump cut off switch. don't get me started.
I was going to share power but my switch or the beer is keeping me from making it work.

I will get back at it tomorrow after work.

The engine side is all wired up but now I have to finish the wiring inside.
I did start the car and the volt meter jumped up to 14v so the alt is defiantly charging.

I'm done for today stay tuned

Ok so thanks everyone for looking.

This is a great upgrade for any Fiero but it really helped with my issues.

My swap started life with a single wire alt, I believe it was an equivalent to the current CS 130 that I have now. But after a few years it started to degrade and not keep the battery charged, when the fan would kick in it would drop to around 11v.
I had a stock Fiero alt so I decided to put it back in.
The stock alt worked on and off but I think due to the fact that I was not using the ECM and had cut power to it that the sense wire wasn't working. I was able to get it to work for about 2 days by running it to a hot ignition source. I believe that I caused the regulator to burn up and the alt soon wouldn't charge. The alt had over 120000 miles on it so it could have just gone bad.

I started reading and found an article on OGRES cave and decided to go that route.
Click the CS alternator link on the left and read the entire page. Then click the link

For a Fiero specific conversion you can read Rabid-Wombat's CS-130 Conversion for 85-87 V6 Fiero.

I just got back from my first drive. The alt jumped to 14v for the first 5 minutes then it settled down to 12.5v and stayed there. I turned every electrical device I have on and it never dropped below 12v. Turn signals don't make the gauge jump like it did.

So as long as my alt bracket holds up I will call this a success.

Great... OK so does anyone have info on how to wire this thing? I have the new alt. & plug but the wires are a different color on the plug & the harness. The Ogre's cave is useless: the menu requires Java & the website to download Java ONLY has downloads for windoze XP & 7. So I guess they (Sun - the Java people) expect me to send even more money to mircosh*t to be able to use their code & to see websites that use it.
Thanks,
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Custom Fiberglass Parts

[This message has been edited by Tha Driver (edited 05-13-2011).]

http://home.comcast.net/~fierocave/ofcindex.htm

I ran a hot wire from the alt lug to the starter lug, that circuit charges the battery.
For accessory power I used the stock wire and connection with the fusible link
The red wire from the plug is ran to the lug as well.

For the sense wire I use the brown sense wire but I cut it on the inside by the computer and just wired a hot wire from the fuse block to a bulb then connected the other side of the bulb to the brown wire.
So far that has been perfect, the alt will charge at 14v for the first 10 to 15 minutes then drop to 12 - 12.5 v depending on what I have running. But I can run the fan, the wipers and all of the lights and not pull it below 12 volts.

The charge idiot light is in the face plate by the lighter, I already had a hole there from a switch that I don't use so I used it for the light. But I have a plug that I will use to move the light to the spot where the check engine light is normally located. That light doesn't work with the V8 setup anyway so its the perfect location for it.

Those would be great info if I was wiring the car from scratch. The problem I have is there is a plug (presumable for the old alt.) already wired in & none of the wire colors match.
But I got it now: I stripped back the harness & washed all the paint off of the wires & I found the brown wire to hook up. Simple enough.
Thanks,
~ Paul
aka "Tha Driver"

Custom Fiberglass Parts

[This message has been edited by Tha Driver (edited 05-13-2011).]

I have a 160 amp alternator on my '87 MSD / APS # 5110 it is brushless and the mounting kit is seperate so you can mix and match or mount different with the slide- locs. wires up same as '88 style, direct fit but externally the case is much larger. Much larger. It puts out plenty.

quote Originally posted by rourke_87_T-Top: I have a 160 amp alternator on my '87 MSD / APS # 5110 it is brushless and the mounting kit is seperate so you can mix and match or mount different with the slide- locs. wires up same as '88 style, direct fit but externally the case is much larger. Much larger. It puts out plenty.

The alt I used is smaller than the stock alt. I used a part number off of a 90 Camaro, the mounting holes are not in the stock position but that actually helps with my low mount that I built.

Its been two weeks, the alt and low mount are working great. I do have one issue, the alt is louder mounted lower. I don't know if its the location or that its mounted to the front motor mount and not the head. But it just seems like its louder that it was in the upper location.
Its not the gears as I can unhook the excite wire and its quiet so its only making the noise when its under load. Its worse at lower RPM

But if it keeps charging I will be happy and I may install the heat shield and see if that helps with the noise.

Well the alt has held up well, no issue. I can still hear it but its not as noisy as when I first got it.
The belt has held up a lot better and the turn buckle is nice as I don't have to try and lever something in a cramped space to get it tight.