daeron Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 OKAY...... heres the setup. I was talking to a friend of mine this AM about his water pump, and I wound up looking up part prices online. at advance auto part's website, i somehow inadvertently clicked on the laternator link while the website was still set on parts for his 86 nissan maxima. I noticed it said 90 amp alternator, so on a whim i clicked on the image. (I also have a 1975 datsun 280Z, which currently has a 50 amp alternator in it, no pun intended.) It looked right, for either car. Alternator was the second thing i had to replace on this car and my first thought was "damn, that looks JUST like the one out of my datsun..." SO i went to the junkyard, yanked one out, went over to an EA-82 and... PRESTO!! it fits!!! it fits GREAT!!! the only snags i noticed were simple enough... A it has a different pulley on it. the pulley, however, seems to line straight up when bolted into the soob. should be a simple swap but i didnt have tools to remove a spare pulley in the boneyard. Im going to try pulling my datsun alternator to see... B the housing of the laternator only allows for so much slack in the belt adjustment.. the soob i used had some adjustment space left on the belt, so it wasnt TOTALLY stretched but it didnt look too new either... however, it was with the grooved pulley and not the v-belt pulley, and if i popped the belt over the pulley before fitting either the top "pin" bolt or the bottom "clincher" bolt it fit great. shouldnt have any problems tightening at all. Its an internally regulated alternator, its obvious which of the two wires on the plug need to go to which two on the soob.. the charging lug and the ground lug on the maxima harness each had two heavy gauge wires running to it.. maybe splice one onto the stock charging wire and one straight to battery?? or just replace the high current wire with a single wire setup?? this is my first alternator conversion ive discovered, so I am a little cautious of the particulars before I dive into actually bolting onto my soob.. but thats right, right????? i dont have ANY high power equipment on the soob, the alternator is NOT destined to stay there, but who knows... when i get around to doing my Zcar maybe I will have cash to drop then and there for a nice reman one and WILL keep it in the soob..... but the stock charging wire should be sufficient given a TOTAL lack of any other current draw, right? i KNOW this one is gonna get a good hit... this is a SIMPLE bolt-on conversion to a higher amperage alternator! no GM big unit to fit in or nothing. the maxima alternator doesnt have the external fan the soob does.. that shouldn't be a problem, should it?????? I also noticed that volkswagen alternators have an interesting "set-back" type of pulley on them... it MIGHT come in handy for any retrofitments anyone may have to make int he future. Junkyard dogs, check that one out. Oh, and ive been gabbing about realys, plugs, and a bracket out of a BMW... the bracket has a cover that i nabbed today. all because i was helping a friend with his car, and needed a front turnsignal lens because i bashed mine yesterday (dont ask) one AWESOME day at the boneyard!!!!! :banana: :headbang: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeron Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 man this ones gonna bug me..... i cant swap a proper pulley onto it, for lack of one!!! maybe if i hit a parts store they could help me... hmm. and now, how do i tighten the other one back on there without air tools to give me the whack i need?? ah well, just tighten so they can test it i suppose. BTW i pulled the datsun alt, and its practically identical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeron Posted September 12, 2006 Author Share Posted September 12, 2006 okay, here are some (re)manufacturer pictures of the unit. no digital camera here, but this is what i can do.... heres the datsun alternator... and heres our ea-82 unit all it should take is the pulley, and splicing the wiring in.. the large plug is on thing, but the charging wire and the ground wire really should be one single piece of wire, so it's best to do something like this thoroughly and avoid using crimp connections or even solder joints whenever possible (read: make your own wiring harness for it, its not THAT hard) once i get the pulley, i will update. sorry if i seem starved for attention, its just that this was a MAJOR part of my day today.. i started out with a goal of going junkyarding and finding a 90 amp or better alternator to fit into my Z and my soob.. the soob for now, the Z later, and I succeeded in finding one that no one else showed me. if im inordinately proud, bug off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeshoup Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 I've actually heard of this before. Its been mentioned a long time ago, in a forum far far away. Looks like it'll drop right into the XT, since its already got the grooved pulley that the XT uses. Sweet. Now just get that damn pulley for the V-belt on yours, so I can see how its done, and get one on my wagon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 The pulley's come off pretty easy with an impact. I don't know if it will be an issue with those nissan units, but with the GM conversion you have to get a smaller pulley so it spins fast enough. Otherwise the amps drop off at idle and your lights start to dim and flicker. That's a nice alternative - especially for the EA82 crowd that wants to keep their AC and stuff. And it looks almost factory. Is that 90 amp a mitsu alt like the XT6 one? As for the non-AC crowd (EA81's, and EA82's without), the GM alts are both higher powered (the large case caddy one is 100 amp for about $50 - lifetime warrantee.... and even larger, up to 250 amp, is eaily attainable if you want to slap down the cash), and cheaper. It's true that some modification is required, but I'm running a standard small case GM alt (65 amp, single wire) on one of my EA81's with zero mods to the alternator. I just had to bend and redrill the outer mount a bit. GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeron Posted September 12, 2006 Author Share Posted September 12, 2006 oh, the pulleys are off... but the datsun (and soob i presume) use two little convew plates bolted together, and then a spacer behind the fan blade that rides against the shaft end bushing... the maxima unit has a one piece pulley that includes the little spacer in it.. and the spacer is too wide to put the pulley assembly onto the nmaxima alt. its a hitachi, just internal fan. actually this one says Nissan on the back, but its a hitachi. i know hitachi compnents well enough by now to know that this one is definitely hitachi, regardless of the logoe molded into the back I'm just gonna ask the Zcar folks what kind of pulley to use. its been 2 years now since i regularly vistied my Zcar.com forum, and when i did a search there this afternoon on maxima alternator, i found that they have already discovered this.. but they hadnt as of a year or two ago..... so i still get to claim credit. i came up with this on my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davalos Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 Figures ... heh. Just replaced my alternator this week with a 60A, which I considered to be anemic. :-\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 now that you mention it. my dad has a 90 amp alt for his Z31 that he got out of a maxima. IIRC, the easiest way to make that work was get a crank pulley off the maxima aswell so you can just run the serpentine belt, instead of the v- BUT, apparently if you get a v-belt pulley off a GM car with an internal fan (all of those things are crucial, and somewhat hard to find), it'll complete the puzzle. he already tried using any of the pulleys off of the number of subaru alts that I have laying around, and none of them worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daeron Posted September 12, 2006 Author Share Posted September 12, 2006 AWESOME ive been trying to find out over on the Zcar board, where this is a known swap, all night...i was also looking for a GM alt that may have been a good fit, out of a 3.1 mpfi motor.. probably the exact vehicle you were talking about. i wonder if it might be the better swap?? wait.. american.. japanse, hitachi at that.. the carbs may suck but theyre electronic equipment is pretty spiffy stuff.. i dont think i want american iron in the car. SPECIALLY not the Z. everyone says "take it to an alternator shop NOT YOUR LOCAL PARTS WAREHOUSE and they can swap it for you.." i havent seen an alternator shop in my town in maybe ten years!! i havent let my fingers do the walking yet.. but... i cant believe that no one has found a pulley in the JY yet!! i guess im starting to see what you soobers mean by "datsun guys":rolleyes: some of us really know what we are doing, but these guys couldnt figger out that to convert the maxima plug to the t plug on the vehicle.. you go fat wire to fat wire, skinny wire to skinny wire.....maybe i just have the benefit of having thought to cut the wiring harness out of the donor car along with the alt.. and a spare harness at that, for the Zcar GOD i love this fabricatin, customizin, car buildin stuff!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 Startmart or the like - starter/alternator shop etc. A friend of mine stopped at one and got a smaller V pulley for the GM caddy alt he's using for like $7. Worked quite well to keep it spinning fast enough at idle. GD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phizinza Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 hmmm. Next stop at the wreckers and I'll be looking at a few Nissans I think! I plan on having about 90amps of accessories (lights, inverter, audio) in my Brat so I want something to back it all up with. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 nice hit hotdog, good luck fitting it. that's awesome work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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