My 'Dude Across the Street' has a 1998 Z/28 with some head, cam, intake, and exhaust upgrades. He's been buying (and I have been replacing) Autozone rebuilt alternators about every 6 months for the last 5 years. This time I told him to just go get a junkyard '03 Escalade 145A and be done with it. What he did instead was cashed in the warranty on his last Autozone rebuilt and bought a new (Duralast Gold) Autozone 145A for an '03 Escalade. After the trade-in, it was something like $19.00.

Then I got to do the swap. Getting the new Escalade alt in wasn't that hard. The exciter plug was long enough, and clicked right in. The power wire loop-end needed to be spun to keep away from the power steering lines. The power steering line needed to be 'persuaded' a little to keep it off the alt case. The mounting bracket bushing had to be pushed out a little so the new alt mount would slide in. Oh, and the power wire nut is a 10mm, not a 13mm.

Kept the stock belt, and it felt like I had to move the tensioner a little further to get the belt back on, but that could just be my expectations playing with my brain.

All told, it took about 90 minutes to get the car up on jack stands, disconnect the battery, loosen the belt, get the old alt out, do the exchange (took the most time), get the new alt in, reinstall the belt, hook the battery back up, run the car for 10 minutes, put the car back on the ground, test drive it, and collect my cash. I told him I would do it for free, but he INSISTED on paying me $40.00. I told him he should have used the $40 to get a junkyard alternator. But he's got this thing about "No junkyard parts are going on MY car! No RockAuto parts are going on MY car!" But he buys Autozone parts… I don't get it.

Anyway, I am here to tell you that a 145 amp alternator for a 2003 Cadillac Escalade will fit directly into a 1998 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28. Same plug, same belt, same mounts.

EDIT: Had to bend the power steering return line down and back to keep it from hitting the alternator case. It was causing an intermittent ground to the power steering rack and making the lights flicker.
EDIT 2: Yeah, that wasn't the issue. It's still doing it. I took the brand new 145 amp Escalade alternator back to Autozone to have them check it, and it passed with flying colors. The problem is somewhere else. I have no idea where it might be. Even better, the manager told me he wasn't going to sell me another alternator until the electrical problem is fixed. So now what do I do? This guy won't put a junkyard alternator on, and he hasn't done the Big 3 upgrade yet. I still haven't told him he now has no alternator.

 

Is it possible to just swap the alternator and not the wiring? If the wiring is needed what gauge are u running??

 

The alternator from a 2006 silverado hd 2500 6.0 is a direct fit, you only need to bend the steering line slightly for it to fit

 

I did the upgrade and it fit great except I have the CBR performance power steering lines so that made it even tighter of a fit. I ended up notching the plastic cover to fit.

im running a stock belt now but need a new one and it's very tight to get on. Is there a belt size that's just slightly longer than stock? It's a pita to get on now and I'm afraid a new unstretched belt won't fit.

 

Mine fit fine with a new stock belt

 

This is the exact reason I started this thread, not one alternator I tried from a parts store would work very long at all. The junkyard alternator outlasted the car. I now have a junk yard alternator on my truck. IT IS THE ONLY SOLUTION unless he wants to spend several hundred dollars on a custom high output unit.

Read the first post in the thread, it's my post, and have dude across the street read it. I am a tech and have been for 20 years, I also started thinking something was wrong electrical wise on my car but never found anything and I tested it over and over again. As soon as I put the junkyard alternator on all the problems stopped.

 

It doesn't matter at this point. Since I wrote that, the car has been to a couple of different tuners (who can't get his car to idle properly), and it is currently holed up in a shop with the motor on a stand. It is in dire need of a new cam, new lifters, and new lifter guides. Other than that…

Oh, and a new power steering pump (as long as the motor's out, he might as well). After all, you have to keep those alternators dry.

As for aftermarket vs. junkyard? I told him to get the junkyard piece but he was adamant: "No junkyard parts!" In the meantime, my junker minivan chugs along while his Z/28 has been in one shop or another for the better part of the last 3 months.

 

Never had a problem with any parts store truck alternators.

Your first post you mentioned the rebuilt fbody alternators come with the wrong diodes inside of them. The neighbors car received the truck alternator without the internal faults of the rebuilt fbody alternators

 

I bought a new ACDelco 335-1092 one from Amazon. So far so good. Although, I'm running an ATI balancer and it uses a smaller pulley than stock 77.5" vs 79" and it's tight as hell with the new alternator. I'm thinkin of going up a half inch or a full inch?

Here's a pic of the tensioner... what do you think? Using a Goodyear Gatorback.

 

Looks normal to me

 

usually going from a small case alt to a large case needs an extra inch or so because it moves the pulley a little. per that pic it dose seem that the tensioner is a little tight. the lign on the arm of the tensioner should be between the 2 lines on the other side of the casting.

 

Yours is on the tight side of the marks. It's an assumption but I believe those are alignment marks and the line on the tensioner arm itself should be between those two, yours is just a hair past the tight side. Mine was too after using the stock belt with a truck alternator and I liked it because it ended up keeping the the belt from jumping off between shifts. Never had a problem with it being that tight and neither did the two people that owned the car after I sold it.

With belts, an inch is a mileeeee. What I would suggest is, if you just don't like it the way it is and choose to make a change, go to a manual tensioner instead of buying a belt (give yourself a good excuse to go ahead and get that sweet looking billet tensioner) or go to the next longest length while staying as close as possible to the original length. But again, I recommend just leaving it, it worked well for me.

 

They have one major similarity, they are both cheaply rebuilt alternators with cheap parts. The F body alternator is on the ragged edge out of the box, the truck alternator isn't being pushed so close to it's total capacity so it happens to last, however that still doesn't make it a quality unit, it just means it's under worked therefore it happens to work out. None of the aftermarket rebuilds or new compare to the components inside an OEM unit. The reason I recommend junkyard alternators is because there is a very high chance it's OEM, and if it fails due to external causes, you're out $50 instead of $400 while figuring that out. And if you buy a new OEM and fry it due to external causes then you're stuck with it. Which leads to another thing, I'd rather test with $50 and if it works out and I still don't want the junkyard part then put the junkyard one on the shelf as a back up or sell it, and then go buy the new OEM one. But first, I'd make 100% sure something isn't killing the alternator. That's how I ended up here, they kept failing and I was afraid there was some unknown demon killing them and if I killed a $400 GM unit I knew they would hassle me and not warranty it. So I tried a used OEM unit and problem solved.

I take my junkyard alternators and clean them and hit them with a wire brush and they look new afterward, most don't want the part to look like junk so that alleviates that problem.

 

Hi OOP, I too agree, there IS a reason for an Alternator to be placed in a "rebuilt" box.

The JY"Dog" is a very good choice.

MY problem is MAX RPM, 12 K ???

The armature has embedded N-52 Magnets as does the Stator.

My current output is 6.3KW or 8.5 HP

I can increase this amount ?

Lance

 

Well I don't disagree. My dualast gold is failing now, when the car gets warmed up the check gauges light Is very dimly on at night.

 

I put a Powermaster on my last Camaro. Two years later, may 1/4 mile passes and with a new owner it is still going strong.

 

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking but if you're gonna spin the motor to 12k I don't think the alternator will take it. Buy two from the junk yard and test the theory. If it dies get an underdrive pulley for the alternator and crank and try that.

Yep, that's what they do, they work for a while then start dying out at idle and you have to rev them to get them to charge. I've had some die in 5 minutes I've had some get weak like yours is after 2 weeks, and the one that lasted 2 weeks was the best one of the rebuilds/new aftermarket alternators.

There are quality rebuilds out there, you're just not going to get them at your local parts store. I've put hundreds if not thousands of part store alternators on in my career but the f body cars are the only ones i've seen so much consistent failure out of. I have had them fail back to back on other cars but usually trying one from a different supplier fixes it. Of course it wouldn't work that way when I have the issue with my personal car, good ol murphy's law I suppose.

 

Hi, sorry.

I was stating ALT RPM of 12K, thus a 3.25" to 3.75" Alt Pulley requirement.

Lance

 

Don't know and no interest in testing it. Just providing information on finding quality alternators here.

 

Ok

Removed alternator, noticed dirt line across alternator face, looked like brake dust, or brush dust should I say

Tested old alternator, passed bench test, failed diode test on car

Performed big 3, technically 4, upgrade, no.change

Swapped for another brand new duralast gold alternator, no change

Im starting to think I may need to go one size bigger on the belt. It seems like normal tension?

Also my 98 has a 2 wire alternator plug, what can I do to make sure the alternator exciter wire is good.

I can order a reman a.c. Delco, same price as my gold new alternator. Would that make any difference?

I sell alternators for Silverados all day and never get them returned. What's the deal with fbodies

This sucks, when the alternator gets hot it goes to high 12's and I believe is zapping power from the fans making it hotter under the hood. I'm just trying to daily drive old blue but the alternator combined with 107 degree heat makes my car go up to 200 or so in temps as the voltage drops