HELP!!!!! Im going through alternators like oil changes UPDATE!!!

[hatchsub]

Well the FOURTH alternator that ive had in this car is going now. It overcharges the system and when first started undercharges it. The first one went because of hacked up wiring, the second for the same reason. I had the hack wiring taken out and this car wired back to factory by someone who worked on these cars when new cause don't deal with underhood wiring. The third one i thought died because it was a crappy rebuilt that had been scrounged from a scrap car. But now the fourth, which was a non rebuilt junkyard alternator is fried. Could my stereo be putting too much stress on these things? I have a fairly powerful headunit and two 10 inch subs in the trunk hooked to a 650 watt (300 RMS) amp in the trunk. Maybe i should think of doing the GM alternator conversion. What is everyones opinion of whats going on here?

[stephenw22]

What is your driving style, electrically-speaking?

 

My wife's car goes through tons of alternators. The reason for this is that she:

1. Drives with the lights on all the time (10-15A)

2. Always has the fan on speed #3 or #4 (5-10A)

3. Has the stereo up loud to overcome the road noise on the gravel roads (5-10A)

4. In winter, has the rear defroster on, most of the time (10-15A)

 

This is an extra 30-50A of load, in addition to the engine's own requirements. Also, there is the battery charging load.

 

With only a 65A alternator, they tend to cook quite thoroughly. Also, remember that the 65A is not at idle, but at a decent speed. So, if you're mostly cruising around town, the alternator won't be putting out the maximum current.

[hatchsub]

I leave the lights on cause they go off when i turn the car off. I also listen to the radio and crank it up. In the winter the fan and rear defrost are used but only when needed. I never had this problem with another car though but then again i never had a sound system like this one.

[75subie]

sounds like it might be worth doing the xt6 alt swap, or a gm alt swap.there are some write ups about both in the usrm, looks pretty easy.

[hatchsub]

yeah im thinking the GM swap is the way to go. XT6 alts are a bit hard to come by over here. But does anyone else think there is something else wrong here or am i just killing alts with the way i use power in this car?

[Tin Soldier]

Stereo amplifies are heck on our little alternators. I recomend a capacitor. You can get on ebay for about $40. They relieve stress on the charging system. Have the next alternator tested someplace after you put it on to make sure you don't still have a short somewhere.

 

I always run with my lights on (80 percent less chance of head on collision, plus it's just plain easier to see a car with the headlights on), my stereo is huge (1000 watt amp and 200 watt head unit running four speakers and two 12inch subs), my heater is usually on 3 or 4 and would run my rear defroster if it worked. Oh yeah and my gps and laptop power invertor.

 

 

I have noticed that at idle my volt guage drops and sometime the dash lights even come on telling me I am pulling from battery. I definitly recomend a cap. I have one but haven't installed it yet and can tell that my alt is paying the price.

 

Just my 2 cents

[the sucker king]

an 83 shouldn't have an external voltage regulator, but look yo see if it does. it is usualy gold color, little box bolted to the sidewall of the engine bay next to the ig. coil. if that is overcharging, it will fry one alt after another

[DrKrazy]

Stereo amplifies are heck on our little alternators. I recomend a capacitor. You can get on ebay for about $40. They relieve stress on the charging system.

 

Agreed, I run tons of electronics, one hell of a stereo/amp, etc on my RX, was having major issues until I installed a good 1.5 farad capacitor, now I never have a problem. Helps to keep the volts/amps up. For my off-roader I will be putting in a GM alt (and a capacitor), but only because it is going to have quite a few off-road lights, and probably a winch.

[hatchsub]

Wow i thought i knew a lot about stereos but i know nothing about capacitors. I know that they store energy for subs but i how do you hook them up? Do they just need to be grounded and then hooked into the existing amp power wire? Also what kind should i get? What is this 5 Farad and 1 Farad rating on these things? Thanks for any input guys.

[DrKrazy]

They go in-line with your power wire for your amp/etc, so your power line from the battery would run into the capacitor, and then from there to your amp/etc. All the good ones will need their own ground that I know of, I have mine feeding all my "extra" stuff, it even has enough storage that I can take the battery out of my RX and get 1 crank out of the engine just from the capacitor (know this from forgetting to my battery back in once LOL).

Directly out of one of my books:

The farad (symbolized F) is the standard unit of capacitance in the International System of Units (SI). Reduced to base SI units, one farad is the equivalent of one second to the fourth power ampere squared per kilogram per meter squared (s4 · A2 · kg-1 · m-2).

When the voltage across a 1 F capacitor changes at a rate of one volt per second (1 V/s), a current flow of 1 A results. A capacitance of 1 F produces 1 V of potential difference for an electric charge of one coulomb (1 C). The farad is an extremely large unit of capacitance. In practice, capacitors with values this large are almost never seen.

 

In common electrical and electronic circuits, units of microfarads (µF), where 1 µF = 10-6 F, and picofarads (pF), where 1 pF = 10-12 F, are used. At radio frequencies (RF), capacitances range from about 1 pF to 1,000 pF in tuned circuits, and from about 0.001 µF to 0.1 µF for blocking and bypassing. At audio frequencies (AF), capacitances range from about 0.1 µF to 100 µF. In power-supply filters, capacitances can be as high as 10,000 µF.

 

In other words, higher the number the better.

[Tin Soldier]

Wow i thought i knew a lot about stereos but i know nothing about capacitors. I know that they store energy for subs but i how do you hook them up? Do they just need to be grounded and then hooked into the existing amp power wire? Also what kind should i get? What is this 5 Farad and 1 Farad rating on these things? Thanks for any input guys.

 

I don't think they get grounded. Trogdor would know he has one on his RX. I think I got a 1.5 for my 1000 watt amp if that helps.

[DrKrazy]

Yea the 2 I own have grounds, but they also have a digital voltage meter built in to them. So that maybe the only reason mine have a ground...shrug.

[zyewdall]

I've never put a capacitor on a car amp, but I did get a EE degree, so we dealt with plenty of capacitors. You'd want to hook it the negative terminal of the capacitor to the negative or ground of the amp, and the positive terminal to the power terminal of the amp. Don't hook it up backwards. Electrolytic capacitors explode if you hook them up backwards because they generate gas inside of them till they explode. One the size of a pencil eraser will make a good firecracker pop if reverse connected to about 20 volts. Out of concern for my own safety I've never tried a bigger one. Most big capacitors will be electrolytic, but they might not be. I'm imagining one the size of a can of beans to get any where near 1 farad at 16 or 25 volt rating.

 

Also, put a resistor with a 60 second RC constant or so across the terminals of the capacitor. Otherwise the big ones can stay charged for a long time, and can produce a significant arc if accidentally shorted after being charged up to even 14 volts.

 

These are just my thinking if you go out and buy a generic capacitor at the electronics store. If you buy one designed for an amp, it probably comes with instructions and the discharge resistor and such, like DrKrazy said. I like the part about being able to crank the starter motor with it.

[zyewdall]

I always run with my lights on (80 percent less chance of head on collision, plus it's just plain easier to see a car with the headlights on),

 

Yeah. I've actually calculated that running with the headlights on will drop about 1 or 1.5mpg off your mileage. But I've seen enough people hesitate and not pull out in front of me because I had my headlights on that I will accept the mileage decrease. The other alternative is to get a big enough truck (like a duece and a half army truck) that I don't care if I run headlong into another car. Which I don't consider a very ethical solution to the problem. I am considering rewiring the circuit so I can always run with the headlights on, but turn the parking lights on separately since I don't need them all on during the day and all combined the parking lights take about as much as the two headlights.

[hatchsub]

In other words, higher the number the better.

So if understood that correctly a 5 Farad cap is better than a 1 Farad cap? I guess what im asking is how strong do i need with my 650 watt (300RMS) amp and 2 10" subs?

[Sweet82]

Re: HELP!!!!! Im going through alternators like oil changes?

 

Have you tried changing your oil less frequently?

[hatchsub]

Have you tried changing your oil less frequently?

LMAO

[DrKrazy]

So if understood that correctly a 5 Farad cap is better than a 1 Farad cap? I guess what im asking is how strong do i need with my 650 watt (300RMS) amp and 2 10" subs?

 

1 Farad should be good..only seen bigger ones in really heavy modified stereo's...like pushing 1000's of watts. Even then the biggest I ever saw that I know of is 2.5, and that's pretty serious. They are not something you want to play around with, and yes gotta remember to discharge it before you move it, disconnect it, etc...or you may get a nice surprise

[mudduck]

LOL, I go through 3 alts a year!! I have a amp for my CB that does about 350-400 watts rms, and thats when I got the small one in line. I love the lifetime warenty. I am going to pull my a/c and have a second alt put in for the radio gear if I can afford it after I get some other toys at refund time.

[Cougar]

Before you spend a small fortune on giant caps I would have the charging system checked out by a good shop. You stated that the system is overcharging now. How do you know that? Did you measure the voltage and see more than 14.8 volts at the battery? Having a good high capacity battery is important to have here also.

 

Check the wiring between the alternator and the battery for any problems. There should be very little voltage drop between the alternator output and the positive battery post with a good load on the system.

[bajavwnsoobnut]

I agree with cougar and also check your GROUND STRAPS too!! had a friend that was having those issues in a 74 superbug and it was cause of the lack of one groundstrap at the tranny/body jct.

[KStretch55]

I think Cougar and Baja are on the right track.

[BoostedBalls]

After engine grounds and voltage verified at battery terminals and alt:

 

I would go with a capacitor like mentioned earlier, you will even hear a difference in the bass. It will smoothen out current draw on the system and make the current more available to the amp.

 

I would also consider a Gm alternator. I think it's time to build up some bolt-on brackets for the ea-82 engines and sell them at an astronomical price to you guys, just kidding. I don't have an A/C compressor on my new engine but I'll design the brackets to work with the compressor in place.

 

How many people would be intersted in such a thing? What should I ask for them? They will be TIG welded mild steel. I might try to sell them on my subaru_18 yahoo group too. I am a moderator on that site.

 

I'll get some of these made up and put a photo of the engine with the GM alternator attached.

[hatchsub]

Ok here is my plan after listening to everything that you guys had to say. Im going to replace the alternator with another junkyard alt (i figure that besides the amp there is no real big draws on the stock one so it should be fine for my needs). Then I'll get the system checked (grounds and voltage across the battery terminals and alt). Until i can get a cap ill just pull the fuse for the amp so that i don't go through this alt as well. Does this sound like a good plan?

[EA82Loyale]

Well the FOURTH alternator that ive had in this car is going now. It overcharges the system and when first started undercharges it. The first one went because of hacked up wiring, the second for the same reason. I had the hack wiring taken out and this car wired back to factory by someone who worked on these cars when new cause don't deal with underhood wiring. The third one i thought died because it was a crappy rebuilt that had been scrounged from a scrap car. But now the fourth, which was a non rebuilt junkyard alternator is fried. Could my stereo be putting too much stress on these things? I have a fairly powerful headunit and two 10 inch subs in the trunk hooked to a 650 watt (300 RMS) amp in the trunk. Maybe i should think of doing the GM alternator conversion. What is everyones opinion of whats going on here?

 

Yep,

 

Used to have a Buick Regal...altenator was fine...put in a 400 watt amp with two square kicker L7's...haha-next day...dead as a door nail...

 

People say that this doesn't have to do with the altenator, but i disagree..

 

When I got my Loyale, the stereo didn't work, so i never used it...i drove it like this for a few weeks...when i finally replaced the radio with CD, the altenator died the next day...

 

-Bill