biger alt on a sierra now done - DIY

[built4thrashing]

have done the install now and have full details.


i have installed an EF / EL Fairmont Alternator on my 1.3 sierra. it is a 110amp alt and is almost a bolt in conversion.

First disconnect battery/s, remove radiator, fanbelt, original alt and bracket.

You need to remove the pulley off the new alt with a rattle gun. The Fairmont has a multi groove fanbelt that needs to be changed to a v-groove. You need to get another pulley off similar alt with a v pulley.

The suzuki alt bracket needs the holes drilled out bigger to suit the fairmont botom bolt. 10mm i think. Mount the bracket to engine and bolt in new alt.

now that alt is in position put new pulley on and check for alignment with metal ruler or straight edge.
remove existing battery wire at connection and install new bigger size one direct from battery to alt.
Top slide bracket needs a bit ground out to clear alternator before it will bolt on to hold new alternator in place.

Replace fanbelt with new 12mm wide one. Re-install radiator. Connect other two wires to alt and start engine. dash light should be off if connected correctly. (but not entirely sure what goes where)


the following link has photos of the install
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/ ... lternator/

[christover1]

nice work.
lights should be good now

[Santos]

Eeer.. did you replace the wires running from the alternator with a thicker gauge? It may run fine for a while but IT WILL give you grief in the furute if you do not.

[bushpig59]

have done the install now and have full details.


i have installed an EF / EL Fairmont Alternator on my 1.3 sierra. it is a 110amp alt and is almost a bolt in conversion.

First disconnect battery/s, remove radiator, fanbelt, original alt and bracket.

You need to remove the pulley off the new alt with a rattle gun. The Fairmont has a multi groove fanbelt that needs to be changed to a v-groove. You need to get another pulley off similar alt with a v pulley.

The suzuki alt bracket needs the holes drilled out bigger to suit the fairmont botom bolt. 10mm i think. Mount the bracket to engine and bolt in new alt.

now that alt is in position put new pulley on and check for alignment with metal ruler or straight edge.
remove existing battery wire at connection and install new bigger size one direct from battery to alt.
Top slide bracket needs a bit ground out to clear alternator before it will bolt on to hold new alternator in place.

Replace fanbelt with new 12mm wide one. Re-install radiator. Connect other two wires to alt and start engine. dash light should be off if connected correctly. (but not entirely sure what goes where)


the following link has photos of the install
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/ ... lternator/

That looks great I love to do it when my alt dies again how easy was it to get another V pulley... Do Wreckers keep that sort handy? Also how much for the alternator? I ask these questions becuase stupid me just spent at the auto electrician a few months ago $200 odd for fullreco of exsisting.....I like the idea of 110 amp alt so the high beam lights and electricals do not suffer .. (you should hear the alt sing when the lights heater sound system Nav computer the stove the vibrator etc is on)
Good work on the pics to I always say plenty of pics plenty of pics
Cheers
John

[bushpig59]

Eeer.. did you replace the wires running from the alternator with a thicker gauge? It may run fine for a while but IT WILL give you grief in the furute if you do not.

I think if you look at the pics he's mentioned "bigger charge wire"....
But what I am wondering about is the main fuse in the battery area is that to be changed??? Wheres N*A*M when you need him.....................

[built4thrashing]

i increased the charge wire from alt to battery. Fuse sizes shouldnt need up grading as lights should be seperately fused .

[84ZOOKSTA]

Hey B4T Now you are an expert at installing alts you can come and do mine. the only difference is mine has a 3pin plug and not a 2 like the sj413's

Cheers
Simmo

[chunkz]

have done the install now and have full details.


i have installed an EF / EL Fairmont Alternator on my 1.3 sierra. it is a 110amp alt and is almost a bolt in conversion.

First disconnect battery/s, remove radiator, fanbelt, original alt and bracket.

You need to remove the pulley off the new alt with a rattle gun. The Fairmont has a multi groove fanbelt that needs to be changed to a v-groove. You need to get another pulley off similar alt with a v pulley.

The suzuki alt bracket needs the holes drilled out bigger to suit the fairmont botom bolt. 10mm i think. Mount the bracket to engine and bolt in new alt.

now that alt is in position put new pulley on and check for alignment with metal ruler or straight edge.
remove existing battery wire at connection and install new bigger size one direct from battery to alt.
Top slide bracket needs a bit ground out to clear alternator before it will bolt on to hold new alternator in place.

Replace fanbelt with new 12mm wide one. Re-install radiator. Connect other two wires to alt and start engine. dash light should be off if connected correctly. (but not entirely sure what goes where)


the following link has photos of the install
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/ ... lternator/

That looks great I love to do it when my alt dies again how easy was it to get another V pulley... Do Wreckers keep that sort handy? Also how much for the alternator? I ask these questions becuase stupid me just spent at the auto electrician a few months ago $200 odd for fullreco of exsisting.....I like the idea of 110 amp alt so the high beam lights and electricals do not suffer .. (you should hear the alt sing when the lights heater sound system Nav computer the stove the vibrator etc is on)
Good work on the pics to I always say plenty of pics plenty of pics
Cheers
John

pm someone on this site called krimnl...
he can help you out with getting an alternator
http://www.ftgautosalvage.com.au/Default.asp

[built4thrashing]

have just discovered the alt i got and put in is faulty and needs to come out and get rebuilt. . it has enough power to run the car but not charge the batterys.

[josh9465]

ive put in an EB Ford 60Amp alternator. havent had any problems. it also came with a V pully so i didnt even have to mod that. only mod i did was to grind out the nut on the bottom mount.

[built4thrashing]

Alternator problems are sorted.

What a difference. The upgrade cost $140 and that included a new belt, radiator coolant, bigger battery cable and alt pulley.

i can run everything just off the alt (thermo, spots, stereo with amp, wipers, everything) without any voltage dips. Was a very easy swap but needed the radiator to be pulled out to make things easier to mount. i wouldnt bother replacing alt with a stock unit ever again.

if anyone wants help/advice doing this to their suzuki then PM me.


B4T

[bazooked]

excellent work, i got to do this to mine, im about to uppgrade the motor on my winch to a 4.6, this will be perfect for toping up the batteries.

[N*A*M]

Eeer.. did you replace the wires running from the alternator with a thicker gauge? It may run fine for a while but IT WILL give you grief in the furute if you do not.

I think if you look at the pics he's mentioned "bigger charge wire"....
But what I am wondering about is the main fuse in the battery area is that to be changed??? Wheres N*A*M when you need him.....................

how may i help you?

[smileysmoke]

just picked up an EF Fairmont GHIA alt (110AMP?) so will do this one soon. cheers to B4T for pioneering this and all the pics also mate!
just one question: what gauge wiring did you use for your Alt?

[built4thrashing]

ok update on this.

If you plan to do this upgrade you need to get all the pulleys from a swift with a multi groove style fan belt as the EF alt is too heavy to operate with a stock belt. I was breaking up to 2 belts a week from sheer weight of alt when loaded up.

I eventually used a 60 amp alt from an EFI swift and that works fine with no broken belts.

[smileysmoke]

yeh i have some GTI pulleys that i will use. i have aircon coming so will need to use these pulleys for that (double pulley setup)

ill have to swap them all over but it shouldnt be all that hard once i have the radiator and fan out of the way.. will mount up the aircon pump at the same time to save a bit of hassles down the way.

if i use the multigroove it should be sweet hey? will see how i go :S

[built4thrashing]

just make sure the pulleys align. and it should be all good

[Santos]

The waterpum is going to need a pulley if you are switching to multigroove won't it?

[built4thrashing]

yes it will. to make it easier install a thermo fan and remove the fixed fan .

[want33s]

ok update on this.

If you plan to do this upgrade you need to get all the pulleys from a swift with a multi groove style fan belt as the EF alt is too heavy to operate with a stock belt. I was breaking up to 2 belts a week from sheer weight of alt when loaded up.

I eventually used a 60 amp alt from an EFI swift and that works fine with no broken belts.

Did you try twin V belts like XD XE XF falcons? If they can handle it, it would be cheaper I think. Just weld another pulley onto old one. Falcon alt (XE twin) pulley might need work to fit EL 100A alt.

[built4thrashing]

why would you do this as it will reduce the room between eng and rad and a thermo fan then wouldnt fit

[smileysmoke]

Is it possible to maybe make a multi groove+V pulley so i can run aircon

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like that . i just got aircon thats all.. the GTI pulley is a twin multigroove.
i have pulleys for the waterpump also so no real stress there.
thermo fan will be the go soon also.. good idea.

[dank]

Thought I'd bump this up with my experiences on this mod...

Well the day that BFT posted his post about the fan belts breaking was the day I went out and got myself a ford EL 100amp alternator from the wreckers and got the pulley changed over to a V.

After reading BFT's issues with the fan belt I decided to go ahead and do the conversion and see how I went seeing that I had the radiator out already for a reco.

Everything fitted pretty well except I had to grind off about 4mm off the inside of the front mount to bring the pulley into alignment with the other pulleys and space out the back mount. I ended up putting one big bolt 10mm all the way through to ease getting it off and on as well.

THe top bracket required a bit of heating and lovin' from a 4 pounder to line it up and after that it was ready for the test run.

I wired it up and yep it ran fine charging at just a touch over 15volts with no accessories, about 14.7 with heater, uhf and radio on and 14.4 with two lightforce blitz 240s and two Narva 170s running (35amps in the lights). After taking it for a drive down the road to fuel up I got back home and noticed that the belt had settled deeper into the alternator pulley therefore losing some tension. I re-tentioned it and after one day of fairly heavy constant four wheeling with high rpm at times the belt seemed fine.

The noise the alternator made with everything on was like kicking in a turbo but it did the job really well.

Went wheeling on ANZAC day and there wasn't any noticable drop in Power output during wheeling.

So there's my experience so far....Obviously a multi-v pulley system would be stronger but we'll see how we got for the time being....

[Remydog05]

I may have missed it but anyone one this with a 1.6 Vit motor in a Sierra??

[smileysmoke]

gw dank! thanks for the update. i am waiting for some time to do mine. i have to fit the aircon and efi also so will do them all at once

also dual batts soon to come so the alternator should help in that regard also.
cheers

[Carcass]

How do they handle water - like river crossings. I had fitted an 80amp holden alternator, brand new from SCA, and burnt both of them out on river crossings. I am now running the standard Vit alternator. No probs

[want33s]

I put mine in today. 100Amp EF Fairmont alt. This is SOOOO easy.
It took about an hour to remove serp pulley and fit XA falcon(email) pulley with XA falcon (bosch) spacer.
About another hour to remove old alt drill bracket out and grind steel spacer in alt.
And another hour to refit with a heavy wire to battery. Works great.
Only problem is ... At idle multimeter says 14.6V, with headlights on 15.0V, high beam 15.2V high beam and full fan 15.2V. Is this right??? Voltage goes up with more load? Apart from main power cable there are only two wires, I have tried swapping them but result is same. Seems a bit high to me?

[4wd junky]

could be that your multi meter is tellin you fibs want 33's. one of my mates took a battery back to iron man under warranty and bloke at iron man put a multi meter on it that read 15.7 volts where as volt meter in dash read 14.7,ironman tried another multi meter and turns out the multi meter was out by 1 amp,hope this helps

[christover1]

I'm just bumping this up, cos my screaming alternator is getting worse.
Loud to a deaf person is a worry

Am considering fors and againsts for this and higher output swift ones.

christover

[Gwagensteve]

Go straight for the falcon. It will be cheaper than a swift one in good condition and have twice the output.

Steve.