HenryJ
Expedition Leader
Yes, you will be hard pressed to find an externally regulated alternator today. Those went away with the old 144 series.
How many grooves are you running? I have a few pulleys at the shop that I have saved. the 48mm and 50mm are hard to find. 52mm not as bad. I might have had a 53mm at one point? I'm not sure what I have left. You can buy new 52mm. A good alternator shop should be able to get them, or like mine have a box of old pulleys to dig through. Keep in mind that a smaller pulley means it runs faster. That could reduce the lifespan of the brushes as well as require more energy to turn it. If the stock 56mm does the job, leave it. If you need a little more at idle, add a smaller pulley.
I prefer to use fuse-able links on the charging wires since there can be great demands at times. I use resettable circuit breakers on the high demand accessories.
Sounds like you are doing good. "If in doubt, ground it out." The energy travels from the ground. Beef those up first.
I used the application of a 2001 1500 suburban with the HO alternator as an application. You are looking for late nineties to mid two thousands Chevrolet truck, 1500/2500/3500 pick-ups, Suburban, Tahoe, Blazer to name a few. I'm not sure on the cars as I spend more time in the trucks areas. The newer DR44G alternators might work too, but the regulator plug differs from the CS130 connector shared by the AD244. Later AD244 abd the DR44G alternators use the PCM to monitor charge function. They may also have some control of it in specific regulators. I did not dig deep enough into that interaction. They should work fine without the influence of a PCM though.
I REALLY should have brought this up first! Spaced it I guess since it has been so long. I forgot to mention the alternators remote sense wire. That in itself may cure your dimming headlamps issue. Check out this thread on my forum : Flickering Lights - alternator sense wire The TSB in there explains lots. I am sorry the images are gone. Those were lost on the old server. It is a simple fix. The "S" terminal on the regulator is not used in many applications. I believe that the newer DR44G does not even have that terminal now. This is for remote regulation of the alternators charging. It senses the voltage at the place of demand, such as the electrical center, rather than internally. Properly wired that can be an advantage. Simply running a wire from that terminal to the hot wire on the back of the alternator was enough to cure most with the flickering lights.
Now all that said, still upgrade to the AD244 alternator. It is a huge improvement over the CS130. I was surprised to find a plastic bushing behind the front bearing on those. Not good. It melts too easy and allows the front bearing to float! I've been upgrading all those alternators as they need replacement. The CS144 used to be the "bullet proof" alternator. It was good, but you will see the AD244 took all its good qualities and made the next generation.
Think about investing in a DC clamp on ammeter. That will be very helpful in actually seeing the amperage flow at a given rpm. They can be very expemsive, but shop around for a good used one, or consider Craftsman. I have a Craftsman and a MacTool. The Mac is much better, but the Craftsman works well too. I don't trust the voltage reading on the Craftsman. They are in error. Fluke is awesome, but out of my price range for no more than I really need one.
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