need double check on VG alternator into '79 ZX

[Niku-Sama]

ok i need to replace my factory installed 30 year old alt because it cant keep up any more, any load on it other than running with out accs and i barely get 12V out of it.

 

i have a 90 amp alt out of an 87 maxima and i want to double check on the wiring so its a quick swap from the old one to the new one because my 280 is my daily.

 

ok so out of the alternator in the car i have a white wire w/ black stripe and a yellow wire comming out of the alternator going to the connecor just behind it and after the connector it changes to a blue wire and a fatty white wire

on the maxima wiring i just have a fatty white wire and a skinny white/red wire

am i correct in assuming the fat white wires from the car and the maxima alternator go to each other and the blue wire from the car and the skinny white/red wire go to each other on the other side of the connector?

 

the rest of it (bat connector) is the same, i just want to be absoutly positive they go together or as positive as i can be before i pop it in because i really hate to fix electrical.

[Niku-Sama]

nothing huh? all i am wondering if how i am going to wire it up is the right way the 2 fat whites together and the blue and white/red together.

 

i know first off some one is gonna come in and say get a GM one wire but i am on a seriously tight budget and i already have this alternator. i didnt pay any thing extra for it, i acually owned a 1987 maxima and replaced the alternator in it with one that had a lifetime warranty and been using that since, i yanked the alternator because i knew i could use it and it was replaced with a new one less than 6000 miles ago. i made good on the lifetime warranty several times so i figured it was worth saving. the bottom end in the maxima ate it self one morning and that was it, i was done trying to fix that car constantly.

[Daeron]

I *should* have an informed answer to give you explaining all the vagueness about the wires, but unfortunately my understanding is too tenuous yet.

 

How about I just say, I replaced the 60 amp internally regulated alternator on my 87 subaru (looks identical to the 280ZX unit, slightly different clock position) with the maxima alternator you are talking about, and all I did was splice terminals onto the cutoff ends of the maxima harness that plugged into my car's T plug. And, Yes, fatty to fatty, skinny to skinny.

 

 

I just feel guilty that I haven't expanded my own understanding to include this stuff yet. BTW, if you do this and fry somethin, it ain't my fault, heh.. but yes, you should be right.

[Niku-Sama]

was it a hitachi alternator?

 

my guess is its pretty much the same too, alot of the datsun/nissan cars and subaru cars from the late 70's to the early 90's have fuji heavy industries plates and share alot of the same parts like injectors, alternators ect.

[Daeron]

oh yah, same thing through and through, just internally regulated. Actually, it (the soobie/hitachi alternator) resembles the externally regulated unit from my 75 in every way but clock positioning.. if there are any differences between MY datsun/hitachi unit, and the one in your ZX, then the soobie unit in question would look more llike mine than yours. The maxima unit (90 amp bugger that I have in my soobie now, and many others have in their Z's already) is nothing like it in appearance, but mounts the exact same. it IS slightly larger, but my soobie is far more restricted in space than any L6 Z I have seen, and it fit in there no problem.. just had to change the pulley to a V-belt type.

 

 

 

 

Subaru/Fuji Heavy and Nissan did alot of parts swapping. There are many eerie similarities between my EA-82 subaru and my old datsuns, and I suspect the similarities only get more common if you delve further back into subaru history.

[Niku-Sama]

probably since you get further away from the flat 4.

 

alrikght well i will yank one of the speaker connectors (same kind on the back of the alternator) and wire it to the maxima alternator so that way if i do have to go back the the old one i can just plop it in there.

 

of course i need to find the right tool to pull the pulley off of both alternators.

[Daeron]

probably since you get further away from the flat 4.

 

?? Except for the Justy, the XT-6, the SVX, and whatever 'ute they have with a six now, ALL of subaru's engines have been flat-fours.... its the ancillary equipment, switches, carbs, dizzys, efi hardware, lots of junk thats very very similar. I was even told once that there is a fair chance that some of our L-series cylinder heads were cast by fuji heavy under contract... and that was in response to a question of *mine* regarding the similarities between soobie heads and the datsun heads..

 

In any case, the point stands that subaru and nissan have alot more in common than any other pairing of japanese companies.

[Niku-Sama]

i didnt think that old 70's stuff had the flat 4 in it theyre rarely in a position where i can see under the hood

[Daeron]

I was sounding kinda dickish last night.. but its kinda interesting. From what I have gathered, Fuji Heavy decided they wanted to make cars back in the fifties or so. They knew VW was doing great with their setup, so they sent some engineers over with a few notebooks, and the subaru was born. AFAIK they were always front engined, and i think all but maybe the EARLIEST were water cooled, but they were pushrod only until the mid 80s, they made one 1800 OHC 4 cylinder that was a direct link between the final 1800 OHV motor, and they also made a six cylinder variant of that OHC 1800. Then, at the end of the 80s, the EJ22 was born and that is all they have made since.. only NOW have they finally developed an engine that wasn't an EJ or a 6 cyl variant of the EJ..

 

blah blah, im telling you stuff I think is interesting because I was a little short worded last night. Good luck with your alternator swap, I'll shut up now.

[Niku-Sama]

alright i need something else if some one can provide.

i need the dirmensions of the alternator pulley. outer and inner where the stud comes through.

 

i have been trying for the past couple of weeks to pull the pulley off of the '87 alternator and its just not going any where and i am about to cut it off. but i am sitting here thinking how hard this one is going to be and trying to get an old 30 year old rusted crusty pulley off the old alternator is going to be. i want to keep it kind of intact incase something happens.

 

the junkyard has an old pickup bed FULL of old pulleys so i might be able to find a suitable one there

[Niku-Sama]

i just thought i would infrom that i got it in, wired up and its workin just as it did in the maxima. 14.2V idle or high revs, light on, heater on wipers going and brake lights on drop it down to ~13.9V. it may not be that low because i am just going on the guage in the car when i do that, i was the only one home i couldnt get any thing to stay on the brakes. battery is a little old and time for a new one soon (leakin)

 

i'll post pics of it in the car soon and some pictures of the wiring i did.

 

since it was a ribbed belt i swapped the pulley with one of similar size but a V belt. i belive it came off of a Delco Remmy GM alternator, perfect size and fit on the stud no problem spacing came out to be near perfect, belt is straight, all the old bolts work on the new alternator. only thing i was majorly concenerd about was the slide bracket to adjust the tension on the belt. since its a smaller pulley i had to slide the alternator further away from the engine to tighten it up but it did before i ran out of space on the bracket.

[Daeron]

You can ask a guy at a parts store (its gotta be a Smart Guy, at a Good Store) to get you a slightly smaller belt; the belts are numbered sequentially, by size/dimensions, and the computers simply cross reference what number belt any given car needs.

 

some places even have yardstick-type devices that measure a belt exactly, and can enter the dimensions on a computer and get a belt part number for what you want.