[Cvarney]

I picked up a CS144 140 amp alternator the other day. The harness on my car now doesn't have an actual connector for the alt, it's some spade types attaching the wires now. I ordered a pigtail for the new 144 but I'm not sure how i sure splice it into the wires now.
And as far as reconfiguring the external regulator if memory serves me correctly 1&4 and 2&3 are jumped together.
thanks
C

[goatmanmitch]

I bought my plug/connector at Autozon, if you reach into the 'face' of the plug you can release the wires. I did that with both the old and new plugs, found the correct place to put the new wires and they snapped back into place. No cutting or splicing required.

[goatmanmitch]

The first pic is how the new plug looks with the old wires and the second is shows how you can use a thin screwdriver to find the release and pull out the old wire. I think my plug was three bucks at a-zone, and it listed as an alternator plug out on the floor by all the fuses, relays and switches. Hope this helps.

[Cvarney]

ahh i see what you mean. By looking at the cs144 it looked like it had 4 mini spade type prongs in there. I didn't realize only two were connected to it as well. Haven't gotten my pigtail in yet so I had nothing to compare it too there.
Thanks a bunch
C

["QUICK-SILVER"]

You guys aren't on the same track. Two completely different alternators and plugins.

The old voltage regulator to alternator wires don't have to be used unless you just want to. The battery wire and brown wire, at the regulator, do need to be longer though to reach the new plugin.
The regulator battery wire goes to the end big wire on the 144 plugin.
The regulator brown wire goes to the terminal marked L on the 144 regulator. So you can look at it to tell where/which wire you need to use on the 144 plugin.

That's if your car has a gen/idiot light. If not, wiring will be a little different.

[BILTIT]

You ca go this route if you put the origianl end back on.

http://store.alternatorparts.com/gen...my.aspx?page=3

bottom of the page.

[Cvarney]

sorry for the long delay with responding, been swarmed at work the last couple of weeks. I think Quicksilver answered my question though. Like the CS144 has 4 terminals for wires connecting to it, and my current one has only 2 wires comming into the alt minus the really heavy gauge wire. What do I do with the other 2 wires in the new pigtail? Just clip them or do I jumper them to the others?
Car does have an idiot light in the dash. And am I correct about the 1&4 and 2&3 wires at the external regulator being jumpered together?
Thanks guys total newb here at wiring.
C

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Forget the extra wires in the new plugin. There not used on older car installations.
Don't get confused by the "1&4 and 2&3". The '2 old' regulator to alternator wires are just used for jumpers/extensions. The two wires that come from the car harness are the ones you need to work with. That's the (red or orange maybe) battery wire in the old regulator plug, and the brown gen light wire in the old regulator plug. The old regulator battery wire goes to the end big wire in the new plugin and the regulator brown wire goes to the terminal marked 'L' on the new alternators regulator. pretty sure it's the second wire in the new plugin, but look at the new regulator to be sure.

So if you do the 1&4 and 2&3 deal just just pay attention to what ends up where. As long as regulator battery and regulator gen light end up hooked to the new alternator in the right place.........everything should be good to go.
If you get a piece of red wire and a piece of brown wire, to make your extensions, you can get rid of the old regulator, plug, and wires all together.

Hope that helps clear things up.
-

[ARAMP1]

Originally Posted by "QUICK-SILVER"

Forget the extra wires in the new plugin. There not used on older car installations.
Don't get confused by the "1&4 and 2&3". The '2 old' regulator to alternator wires are just used for jumpers/extensions. The two wires that come from the car harness are the ones you need to work with. That's the (red or orange maybe) battery wire in the old regulator plug, and the brown gen light wire in the old regulator plug. The old regulator battery wire goes to the end big wire in the new plugin and the regulator brown wire goes to the terminal marked 'L' on the new alternators regulator. pretty sure it's the second wire in the new plugin, but look at the new regulator to be sure.

So if you do the 1&4 and 2&3 deal just just pay attention to what ends up where. As long as regulator battery and regulator gen light end up hooked to the new alternator in the right place.........everything should be good to go.
If you get a piece of red wire and a piece of brown wire, to make your extensions, you can get rid of the old regulator, plug, and wires all together.

Hope that helps clear things up.
-

I'm wanting to put a 144 style alt in my truck and I'm kind of following what you're saying, but if you know, could you tell me which wire from the alt plug goes where?

Sorry for the crude drawing.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

144 terminal 1, big wire, is voltage sensing. Same as terminal 2 on SI (built in regulator) alternators. OR, It hooks to the battery wire on external regulators.
144 terminal 3, should be light wire. (Look at the regulator itself on the 144 and see if there is an L at that location.) Brown wire, terminal 1 on SI (built in regulator), or brown wire on external regulators, will go to the L terminal on the 144.
Wires on back battery stud hook up all the same.

There's two different regulators used in the CS alternators. So you have to look for the L to make sure it's there. The other type doesn't use a light and you have to do things a little different.

EDIT: Read John's post, went and looked at a CS, and terminal 3 on the 144 plugin IS the light wire.

[johnta1]

The 4 pin plug has connections marked S, F, L and P. NOTE: If your alternator as an 'I' in place of the 'L' connection, see the paragraph below.

S = Sense
F = Failure (Indicator)
L = Lamp
P = Pulse

The 'S' connection connects to a remote voltage sense location. This wire connects to the larger gauge wire that was on the stock SI alternator connector (Not the thick battery wire that connects to the rear of the alternator). As it sounds, the alternator uses this connection to sense the remote voltage to determine if it's sagging (more current required), or not (less current required).

The 'F' connection is the failure indicator. It normally would go to a alternator failure indicator in some setups (as opposed to an alternator lamp).

The 'L' connection is the lamp connection. The 'lamp' refers to the typical idiot light for an alternator. This connection requires switched (ignition) voltage through between 35 and 350 ohms of resistance. If the alternator sees below 35 ohms of resistance, the CS alternator will fail eventually.

The 'P' connection is not used in your application. It's a pulsed output that connects to a tachometer in some applications.

For alternators that have an 'I' connection in place of the 'L' connection, the wiring requirements are a bit different.

This is what I have saved.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by johnta1

This is what I have saved.

2nd and 4th terminals are the ones you don't need/use.

Went and found this site that covers it pretty well and explains about the amount of resistance on the light wire.

http://www.novaresource.org/alternator.htm

-

[ARAMP1]

Thanks for all the info gents! My truck that I'd be using this in is a diesel. I wonder if there are tachometer's out there where the Pulse lead could be made to work.

[Cvarney]

Finally got mine in. Seems to be working correctly. Noticed my wiring harness is total buttcrack though lol. quick and hopefully final question, the idiot light does not come on any more, like not with the key in the run position but the engine off. If I remember correctly that's normal, but I just wanted to double check.
C

[grandville455]

Originally Posted by Cvarney

Finally got mine in. Seems to be working correctly. Noticed my wiring harness is total buttcrack though lol. quick and hopefully final question, the idiot light does not come on any more, like not with the key in the run position but the engine off. If I remember correctly that's normal, but I just wanted to double check.
C

Did u upgrade any of the other wiring to handle the higher voltage?

[stellar]

key on eng off lite should be lit. If you used a CS144 plug with a resistor in it, you may have too much resistance and the lite won't work. You can buy a plug with or without the extra resistor. The plug with the resistor is to be used if you don't have an indicator lite. Where did you get the CS plug? If it is from a parts store or a junk yard it won't have the resistor.

[Cvarney]

I got the plug from car quest, same place i got the alternator. I do have a lamp in the dash taht was working previous to the install. It appears taht it is keeping the battery charged. Drove it around an hour or so yesterday, and like 30 minutes or so the day before when I first got it in. The 30 minute run, the fan wasn't wired up I had left the connectors big enough at home. I took it to the garage at work to mess around with it. The 2nd day a taurus fan was in an ran pretty regularly, it was like 95 degrees here yesterday. NEver had any starting drag or the volt meter dropping out on me.
If I need the resistor what size should I look for?
C

[stellar]

no resistor needed because you have a lite. Your lite should be working. possibly you wired to the plug I instead of the L.