Saturn alt - Jay Racing Pigtail

Hey all, just a few questions here.

I'm doing the swap right now, and I have the Jay Racing plug for it.

There are 3 wires on this and I have a couple questions.

1) Does the thick red cable go to the battery?
2) If so, there is only 1 other wire from the alternator that needs to be wired up, but 2 left on the plug, black and brown? Where do they go?
3) I Can't seem to locate the post that is for the power connectors that were on the original alternator? Do I have to take the stud out of the mitsu alt and put it into the saturn one?

I did the swap few weeks ago, this is what I wired up from the oem harrness to the pigtail:

- Red with Red (12V source)
- Black with Black&yellow (voltage metering)

the brown is the wire that stay`s unplugged from the pigtail.

which stud are you referring to

The stud I'm talking about is the one where the big power connectors were bolted to the stock alternator.

there are the 2 big power connectors that you have to bolt from the original oem alternator.

On the opposite side of the alternator, there is one little stud that comes out, then there is another threaded hold that looks like it's for a bigger stud.

Just wondering where you hooked up your 2 big power connectors.

You can see the small stud on the alternator in this picture, just under where the pivot bolt goes through the alternator.

Then there is a threaded hole opposite it, you can see the hole right beside the pig tail.

Just wondering if I put a stud in the threaded hole and that's where I connect the big harness power connectors, or so I connect the harness connectors to that small one on the lower side?

Or in this picture, you see where the red wire is going to, is that where you connected your main power connectors to?

Looking at the picture above, I don't believe that's how I connected #2 wire.

you should already have that stud & wire hooked up on the original alternator, when you remove it & install the Saturn Alt, re-connect it to the stud on the alternator, it will be right under the plastic shield towards the front of the car (if installed)

I'll try and get some pictures up, I've been neglecting that for a while now. and also trace the #2 wire and let you know exactly where it's going to, I believe it goes to the battery, but I will confirm tonight if I get a chance.

The RED (regulator sense wire) wire should be connected to a keyed ignition source. The charge wire is directly connected to the battery to the stud. Connecting the red wire and charge wire together will drain the battery.

On Mitsu alt the trigger to the regulator is built-in and becomes live once the car is running.

Oh I know that's not the proper way to install the red wire, I was just posting that picture to ask about the BAT stud? That's the stud that I hook the big ring terminals to right?

As for the rest of the wiring, I'm getting an idea of where it goes.

Dennis, do you have an idea on which source I should connect the red wire to?

What I am reading is this:

I should wire the big red wire to a place on the car that would see voltage drops, which I am not sure where to wire it to.

The black / yellow wire connects to the brown wire, and I am not sure what connects to the black wire as the moment, but I do know that there is a hole on the back of the alt where I should bolt something in for a ground, and ground it directly to the negative battery post.

The red wire should b e connected to a place that sees voltage drop (again, not sure where I should wire this in), and that makes the alternator either relax a bit when the car is seeing proper voltage, or work harder if it's seeing a voltage drop.

If you could give me a tip on where to wire the black wire and a place I can wire in the red wire that sees voltage drop, that would be great

Also, for anyone trying to do this swap, in the 2nd picture of the alternator, there is that little ring thinger, that ring thinger will not allow for the pivot bolt to go all the way through, so save yourself some stress and bang that thing out before you try and put the alternator in

Do not bang that thing out. Get a longer bolt. It's there for a reason!

Even in the guys write up, he bangs it out. It's not the bolt that's the problem, it's that it sits over the edge of the bolt hole just enough to make it not fit properly.

look in the the guys write up, the picture, he removed it

Where can I wire in this thing that sees voltage drop. One dude mentioned his distribution block?? What's that?

That bushing should help with vibrations, tensioning and also keep the bolt from rusting to the bracket. It will definitely work fine without the bushing but it could cause problems later.

What are you trying to wire, the main output? I think it should go to the alternator fuse.

Would it make that much difference? That "bushing" is made out of the same material as the alternator, haha.

I need to wire the red wire to an electronic device in the car that would see voltage drop. The red wire or S on the pigtail, is a wire that will either make the alternator work harder, or less, depending on the voltage at a certain area. Most people route it to the BAT terminal on the alternator, but that will just show 14.7v all the time, but you will get voltage drops in other places in the system

I'm trying to find a place that would see voltage drops. One guy wired it to his distribution block, what the hell is that?

Ah, I see. A distribution block is commonly used in car audio to split the power wire out to multiple amps and devices:

One in at one side -> multiple fuses -> multpile outs at the other side.

Voltage drop will happen most far away from the battery and where smaller gauge wire is employed. So use a constant power wire somewhere away from the battery. Maybe a wire for the rad fan?

When you tighten the bolt, that bushing tightens against the block, so the alt. doesn't"flex" back and forth. Without it, you are just puting pressure on the case of the alt. and you will break that "ear" off. Ya dig?

You won't see 14.4 volts all the time from the Alt. It only comes on when the battery needs it. That is why it has a regulator.

The wire from the battery is the same as going to a distribution block.

Run that wire directly to the battery!

Run the big red wire to the battery? Then there is 2 wires going to the battery? The yellow wire is supposed to connected to the black one, and the black and white wire connects to the black wire, and then the red wire you are saying I should just put directly to the battery as well?

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/cus...improvements-saturn-alternator-swap.html

That's what I'm reading

So I have this hooked up right now:

Large Yellow - Black
Black and yellow - Brown
And I'm going to run a 10G wire from the red wire to the battery. Just to see how this will work out. I will also try wiring the red one into somewhere that sees voltage drop, like a fan wire or something like Rob said. And then see how it works from there.

I am just hoping to avoid the battery draining issue that some people had mentioned on DSMTuners. I will try it out and if it works then great, if my battery gets drained over night, then I'll re-do the wiring and let everyone know how it turns out.

So This is what I did, so far it's good. I will find out in a few hours if there is a drain on my system

Red wire from pig tail - battery
black wire - yellow wire
brown wire - black and yellow wire

It's looking like 14.7V when started, 14.3 with everything on at idle, and 14.7 when cruising

Damn I really have to get this alt!

Warm start was 14.2, once I started driving it was 14.7

They say I can get better results if I wire the red wire to a spot that shows voltage drops, that way when the alt sees anything less than 14v, it puts in more work, and makes sure the voltage is proper.

I just needed the car on the road, so I didn't want to do too much more reading on where to run the wires differently. I will eventually and run the wires along the main harness rather than running it along the o2 sensor wiring.

So far the car is running great.