good to go. Had to delete the plastic back cover but who needs that anyway. Also had to move up a inch on the belt but I also had to adjust the mounting bracket some which had to do with that. I may order a half size down just incase. Haven’t test drove it yet but volts are pegged at 14. Thanks again.

 

why would you need to delete the back cover ? i think it might be important

 

It’s a vented cover with many holes. As long as non of the stuff on the back is in contact with anything it will be fine. The reason to delete it is because with it on it hits the oil filler neck and the head. It could be trimmed but at that point 3/4 of the cover would be gone anyway.

 

Drilled a bunch of holes in the back cover of my last 145 that I put on my 04 truck with a really healthy stereo system that really needed 2 alternators. Drove it daily for years like that no issues.

 

excellent little interesting piece of auto history, I'm looking forward to the day these great American co.s come back to USA. instead of chinesed up low quaility crapola just saying.thanks.

edit: I always thought that the champion spark plug was for lawn mowers and other small engines. champion must be a well built SP because my boat engine 04 johnson 175HP last of the carbed 2 strokes won't run properly w/out the champions. they force you to purchase 8 when you only need 6.
engine ran like crape w/ NGKs which is what I use in my car TR55 and my 5.3 tow vehicle.

 

Back about 30-40 or so years ago, Champion was one of THE good spark plug brands, and widely used. I guess not so much now.....

 

I have been following this thread as I was having issues with my alternator after a rebuild. The shop I took it too worked with me, but it was a struggle. Here is what I did and the parts used. Sorry for the novel, and hope the information helps someone.

Rebuild 1 - cleaned alternator and replaced regulator as it was faulty. Put an aftermarket replacement in(D702). First rev past 6000rpm, regulator popped.

Rebuild 2 - replaced regulator with HD version(D702xHD). Would charge normal, but as soon as you were higher than 6100rpm, it would stop charging. Once below 6100, it would start charging again. After a couple of hits, it took out the diode pack and regulator

Rebuild 3 - replaced rotor, regulator, diode pack. This worked very well. Would charge and kept charging at high rpm. Everything appeared to be great until i pulled the car into the garage. At idle, voltage would drop every 17seconds like clockwork as if a huge load was put on the electrical system. Voltage would drop to 12V and then back up to 14.1V. I was able to get my brothers alternator to confirm it was nothing on the car side, and it was not. For some reason, the regulator would 'trip' and have to re-energize. It was the same effect as before, but now it was at idle and not wot. The shop had a tester and we ran through some scenarios. First was 3000 alternator rpm and increased the load. Everything worked perfectly. We then dropped the rpm to 2200 and slowly increased the load. As soon as we hit 38 amps, the regulator would trip. This is using the same HD regulator as above. Replacing the rotor fixed the wot charging but now idle was an issue.

Rebuild 4 - Replaced stator. Made no difference and didn't think it would, but did it for science.

Rebuild 5 - Grabbed a different CS130 alternator off the shelf(same style regulator) and put the same load on it. The alternator would do the exact same thing, At this point the alternator was completely rebuilt with new parts and they were at a loss. The shop had a unit that was rebuilt due to bad bearings that was sitting on the shelf but had an original regulator in it. They put that unit on the tester and it worked without an issue. Put the regulator in my unit, and the problem was solved. Voltage never dipped on the same load as above and charges at wot.

It looks like I had a combination of different problems. I think in my situation, I had a bad rotor, regulator and diode pack. Not all were defective at the same time, but became the weakest link once the other was resolved. The other issue is that not everyone has a spare GM unit they can get their hands on. This is where my brothers comes into play. I noticed that we both had the same diode pack(Regitar RD-97B), but his regulator was a Taditel T719. Based on this I would think these combos may be the ticket. Again, not saying this will fix the issue for anyone else, but for me this is what I had to do.

The other thing that I don't recall seeing in the thread is the mention of a AD230 unit - these came on late 99-01 trucks. This is basically the same case style as the CS130D(minus the mount on the rear) but uses similar internals to the AD244. The only downside is that the AD230 is a 105amp unit and the AD244 is 145amp. This may be a suitable unit if space is tight - best of both worlds...

 

Exactly why I started this whole thing 10 years ago, then only components that held up were the OE components. The only way I could get an alternator with OE components for less than $500 was to use used alternators. By the time I had the issue F body cars were picked clean so the truck alternator was the ticket since there were so many of them in yards.

The CS130 alternator would also work, funny you mention that, I have a factory original sitting right here 10 feet away from me I've been holding onto for years.

The cs130 should have been added to this a long time ago but I was hyper focused on a better alternator and higher output, the cs would have been great also for guys that didn't need or want much extra amperage.

 

I think I'd like to have the CS130 for the TA and for my 07Saab97x 5.3i same as trailblazer.155K on the clock and I beleive a weak charging sys. it has the L33 5.3 w/ alt. on top driv.side. same type serpentine ribbd belt.I assumme the sc130 is 130amps? the ad244 is 145amps

are you Guys still getting ad244 alt.s for the Fbodys at like LQK I've noticed that whenever a large van/truck 1500+ series these larger 6.0 LS engines& trans go very quick.
I'd love to finalley resolve the charging w/ AC issue only in summer w/ a brand new ad244.

?1.what donor car has the SC130
?2.please recommend a upgrade alt. for the L33. how is youre 014 holding up.what kindof of power w/ headers and I assume tune.


?3.recommend brand new for either sc130 or the ad244. links would be greats forgive me that I didn't read complete thread at time of writing this, to find these answers.I will be reading for the answers however if you have the quickie answer would also be great. Thanks

 

The alternator we were talking about was the other truck alternator, the smaller one that is 105 amp.


Basically the whole point is to try and get a used OEM alternator, it doesn't have to be a kg3 145 amp. The main thing is to get a QUALITY one. I chose to make this about the 145 amp so that guys could get a good one, that is also high output. But the high output is not necessary for your typical f body car.

If you're having a hard time finding a used one, you can try a 145 amp truck alternator from autozone, they work better than the ones for the f body car that fail left and right.

 

Proving to be a VERY useful thread, Pooter!
Should be a sticky.....

 

haven't even looked yet I'll see if I can obtain a another used ad244 kg3 for TA
will it also fit the 5.3 engine w/ stock belt?

prefer not to have autozone if I can avoid it. thanks

 

On the trucks you need a longer belt for the 145 amp and a shorter belt for the 105.

On f body cars I've gotten the stock belt to work with both

 

excellent infor on belts .

what would be a upgraded alt. for the L33 5.3 engine I'm not sure it's amperage it appears to be a smaller case just like the oem for fbodys. so it's proballey the 105amp.
I'd like a more powerfull alt.

are the belts lenghtened a inch at a time meaning each larger belt is 1" longer?
and yes I got lucky w/ f-body oem belt fitting the ad244.
thanks.

 

Same for you as for everybody else.

Get the one for the KG3 (145 amp) option.

Belts come in mostly random increments. No particular "steps". You might not even need a longer one, but if you do, it'll be maybe 1" longer. No more than that.

 

I have been using the kg3 145 alternator in my trans am for a few years now with no issues at all. I now want to upgrade the alt in my 2005 Tahoe as well but it has that charging system that stops charging when the battery is fully charged. Will the bigger kg3 alternator cause an issue with that system?

 

I didn't know about the tahoe charging sys. don't tahoes have 2 batteries?

still unsure what a alt. upgrade for the 07 gtm 360 trailbalzer ( it also apears to stop charging past 12oclock when full it lowers to left of 12oclock maybe 11oclock I think 12 oclock is 12vdc) I do know this alt. k3g doesn't have the exciter wire like the f body. so I'm safe to say the k3g won't work on the L33 engine.

I only posted here because it's a great alt./charging thread created/maintained by pooter he doesn't have to he just does. also he has almost the same truck engine where he's proballey upgraded.

 

Most if not all Tahoes have only one battery. Usually only Diesel trucks have 2 batteries.

 

There are two connector types and they change over around 2005. You can put whatever alternator in that plugs in. For example, if you have a 4 wire connector (sometimes only uses 1 wire but has 4 holes). Then the GM 4 wire alt will work. There's also a 2 pin, you can use the 2 pin style with the 2 pin style. There are adapters and conversions out there to convert one to the other if you want, and use any alt on anything.


Tahoes use one battery

The KG3 DOES use and exciter wire exactly like the f body. The exciter wire is the single wire (in the 4 pin connector), that connects to the L terminal on the 4 pin alternator. The F body and KG3 both use the L terminal for the exciter wire.

That's why you can plug a KG3 directly in and it work. If it wasn't the same it wouldn't work.

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but I couldn't find anything so I'll post it here.
I switched to the truck alternator and, aside from running like an absolute champ, it also fixed my issue with a bouncing/dancing oil pressure gauge. I always figured it was the sending unit and had it on my to-do list to change, but after switching alternators it's finally evened out. Must have been a voltage issue... So if anyone else has been having trouble out if that gage, a truck alternator might be in order