last night on the way home, the alternator suddenly stopped working. perfect time. cold. rain. dark. only halfway home. someone asked a little bit ago, how long a Fiero will run without alternator. well, faily new battery, ran 20 minutes with headlights. shut the wipers off (love that rain-x). on the last stretch, was barely running. fuel pump not making enough pressure. radio clock LED's gone. OK, made it into my garage - woohoo! now comes the hard part....taking out the alternator. OMG WTF PITA. I've never done it in car....seemed easy enough with when the cradles been out....lol....right. only reason to open the hood is to disconnect the battery, everything else was done thru the wheel well. This is a '85 V6 Auto Trans. The alternator does not make it past the alt bracket. I ended up undoing the dogbone, and pushing the motor towards the firewall. made it past the bracket. now it wont come out the access hole. undo the rear tie-rod at the knuckle. out it comes. hooray! 2 hrs to remove an alternator! so, this is gonna get the '88 CS alternator. got the wrong one, the 6 groove pulley. gonna take it back tonight, get the 5 groove pulley, even tho it seems it would work anyways. so, heres where I'm not sure if i'm going to do this right, but this is what I am gonna do: I got the connector for the CS alt - it has 3 wires - red, black & brown the old alt only has 2 wires on the connector - red & brown I was going to do the obvious - red to red, brown to brown, leave off the black. seems like the thing to do. being enough people have done this, is leaving off the black wire the thing to do? or do I ground it? or do I tie it with the brown wire? also, this new CS is quite a bit smaller. might be able to put it in without pushing the motor forward...ug - what fun
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09:34 AM
PFF
System Bot
dguy Member
Posts: 2416 From: Beckwith Township, ON, Canada Registered: Jan 2003
edited 'cause I looked up the proper article reference
Last time I looked, Ogre's Cave had a good article on a CS alternators.
Go to the Electrical section, and look for CS Alternator under the Charge & Start folder.
------------------ -d.
1985 2M6 SE (his) 1984 2M4 (hers)
Ratings don't make the world go 'round, but they are nice to have. If you find what I have to say helpful, please click on that Rate this member link over to the left and give me a positive.
[This message has been edited by dguy (edited 11-19-2003).]
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09:44 AM
Paul Prince Member
Posts: 2935 From: Kansas City, MO Registered: Dec 2002
last night on the way home, the alternator suddenly stopped working. perfect time. cold. rain. dark. only halfway home. someone asked a little bit ago, how long a Fiero will run without alternator. well, faily new battery, ran 20 minutes with headlights. shut the wipers off (love that rain-x). on the last stretch, was barely running. fuel pump not making enough pressure. radio clock LED's gone. OK, made it into my garage - woohoo! now comes the hard part....taking out the alternator. OMG WTF PITA. I've never done it in car....seemed easy enough with when the cradles been out....lol....right. only reason to open the hood is to disconnect the battery, everything else was done thru the wheel well. This is a '85 V6 Auto Trans. The alternator does not make it past the alt bracket. I ended up undoing the dogbone, and pushing the motor towards the firewall. made it past the bracket. now it wont come out the access hole. undo the rear tie-rod at the knuckle. out it comes. hooray! 2 hrs to remove an alternator! so, this is gonna get the '88 CS alternator. got the wrong one, the 6 groove pulley. gonna take it back tonight, get the 5 groove pulley, even tho it seems it would work anyways. so, heres where I'm not sure if i'm going to do this right, but this is what I am gonna do: I got the connector for the CS alt - it has 3 wires - red, black & brown the old alt only has 2 wires on the connector - red & brown I was going to do the obvious - red to red, brown to brown, leave off the black. seems like the thing to do. being enough people have done this, is leaving off the black wire the thing to do? or do I ground it? or do I tie it with the brown wire? also, this new CS is quite a bit smaller. might be able to put it in without pushing the motor forward...ug - what fun
Yea, I just did the SI to CS and once I got the SI off the bracket I put a clip in to hold the bushings and took it apart, came right out the rear.......Paul
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10:22 AM
lemonicegt Member
Posts: 39 From: charles town, WV Registered: Nov 2003
Yea, I just did the SI to CS and once I got the SI off the bracket I put a clip in to hold the bushings and took it apart, came right out the rear.......Paul
took the alt apart to take it out? hmmmm not sure I like that, but damn good idea! anyways, my main concern is the wires. I'm pretty sure red to red, brown to brown, & leave the black off is the way to go - looking for confirmation
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10:46 AM
Paul Prince Member
Posts: 2935 From: Kansas City, MO Registered: Dec 2002
took the alt apart to take it out? hmmmm not sure I like that, but damn good idea! anyways, my main concern is the wires. I'm pretty sure red to red, brown to brown, & leave the black off is the way to go - looking for confirmation
Can't confirm the wiring. Actually mine is an 88 that I switched from a manual to an auto. I could not find a 88 auto harness anywhere (until last week) so I was using a 87 auto harness. 88 harness is in and all is good By taking apart I mean I took the 4 bolts that hold the housing to the winding part. You normally have to do that if the clocking isn't correct.........Paul
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11:13 AM
Nov 21st, 2003
Pyrthian Member
Posts: 29569 From: Detroit, MI Registered: Jul 2002
The new CS is in and working. Working GREAT in fact! Wiring in the new connector was as straight forward as can be - the old SI alt connector has 2 wires - red & brown, the new CS connector has 3 wires (actually 4 post, just 3 wires tho) red, brown, & black. TY GM. red to red, brown to brown, leave the black undone. its an '88 Fiero 5 groove pulley. most stores only had the 6 groove pulley. Autozone was the only place I found that even gave a choice of 5 groove or 6 groove. I expect you can use the 6 groove, just need to be careful how the belts aligns. Boy oh boy, this new CS made a BIG difference in my idle. Really. My idle was good. sat around 900, hunted up to 1000. it is now a SOLID 750.
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08:33 AM
Paul Prince Member
Posts: 2935 From: Kansas City, MO Registered: Dec 2002
The new CS is in and working. Working GREAT in fact! Wiring in the new connector was as straight forward as can be - the old SI alt connector has 2 wires - red & brown, the new CS connector has 3 wires (actually 4 post, just 3 wires tho) red, brown, & black. TY GM. red to red, brown to brown, leave the black undone. its an '88 Fiero 5 groove pulley. most stores only had the 6 groove pulley. Autozone was the only place I found that even gave a choice of 5 groove or 6 groove. I expect you can use the 6 groove, just need to be careful how the belts aligns. Boy oh boy, this new CS made a BIG difference in my idle. Really. My idle was good. sat around 900, hunted up to 1000. it is now a SOLID 750.
I noticed the same idle quality, as well as the voltmeter staying at 13.8-14.2 with all accesories on. Did you do the 105 amp?....Paul
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09:13 AM
Pyrthian Member
Posts: 29569 From: Detroit, MI Registered: Jul 2002
I dunno. I think it is the 105 amp. I just asked for a '88 Pontiac Fiero alternator w/5 groove pulley. there wasnt much else to choose from. It was odd that Autozone was the only place I could get the 5 groove pulley, everywhere else had 6 groove pulleys.
came right out from under the car
