The guy saved his mangers life & the companies cash, then they have the ***** to fire him. Well with that being said I will never buy another part from them again. That is the most UnAmerican thing I have ever heard. That is just sad !!
Thanks for info I'll check it out on their website.

 

Well I got around to playing with it today. Unfortunately I lost a couple of pics, so I don't have all the comparisons I wanted.

First off, difference in pulley size





Sorry, but the pic of the stock pulley didn't come out, but I figure you can measure your own if the first pic wasn't enough to show the difference.


I took the case apart so I could clock the front and end up with the plug pointing in the original direction so it wasn't so close to the CAC tube that you couldn't use a socket to disconnect the line. I took the old one apart too for the heck of it. (it didn't want to come apart and the bearing ended up staying on the shaft as I convinced it to come apart)

Old case


New case



Old guts


New guts



Old case won't even fit over new guts


Add secondary charge wire


Back of alternator with plug now pointing in the right direction and extra charge wire added



A little split wire loom to make it look purty



Put the belt back on




Then choose a prize from any shelf.

 

Good job Chris. Thanks for the update and pics.

 

Nice write up chris...... I will be doing this when mine poops out for sure. Keep us updated on the working order of the unit and durability.

As for my prize...... A Dog Biscuit and a Miller to wash it down LOL

 

Well done and NICE prize selection!!

 

Nice write-up Chris (sorry I can't rep you)!

Think about this...the guy (Devin McClean) has a carry permit, he is an Air Force VETERAN, it is the holidays and he is about to be a father. He leaves the store gets his gun and returns to save people, and the ********* at Autozone fire him! I immediately wrote to Autozone when this happened and told them to pound sand if they didn't hire him back with a raise and apologize to Devin. Of course, ********* don't answer email that have the tone I used with them and they didn't hire back a hero!

I won't buy anything from Autozone and it adds 30 miles round-trip to get parts...write them or hammer their Facebook page.

 

No facebook here, and I haven't written yet. I'm going to wait until after the holidays and use snail mail. I'm going to include my rewards card in the mail and tell them they can have it back. I'll let them know I haven't shopped there since this happened (something they can verify by looking at the history from my rewards card), but wanted to wait to write the letter to let them know this wasn't just an emotional rant that would pass.

I used to buy a lot from them since they opened a store that's about 10 miles closer to me than any of the other chain stores. Looks like I'll be driving more too now.

 

No Facebook here and writing a letter with your reward card really tells them to f(*k off...I knew I liked you !

 

Yes it does.

Glad I already prefer O'Reilly's to Autozone.

Stewart

 

Chris,
Unless you did so already....you may consider adding a fusible link or circuit breaker in your secondary charging wire. The primary charging wire has two fusible links in parallel (Fusible link B-two 12 gauge grey wires). The '99-'01 models has the fusible links at the ring connection on the fender mounted solenoid while the '02-'03 models have the fusible links at the ring connection on the passenger battery positive clamp.

Adding a secondary charging wire from the driver side battery positive to the alternator field output introduces the possibility for a direct short to ground that needs to be fused. It's possible for the alternator to fail in such a way as to allow unregulated current flow directly to ground. It's not very likely, but still possible. Another remote (but possible) scenario is a fault with one or more glow plug wires under the valve cover. If one of those wires were to short out against something that was grounded then it would have unfused battery power when the GP relay was activated. Most likely the wire under the valve cover would simply melt but it's safer to have a fuse at both charging wires just in case.

I just thought I'd mention this in case it was overlooked.

 

Great job, Chris. Since you've slightly undersized your pulley on the new unit, you're probably getting closer to 150 (or more) amps out of the unit (using my calibrated eyeball to judge the difference in diameters in your picture). Also, your experience with the slightly larger case is the exact same thing I went through when I installed my DB Electric alternator about 2 year ago. Shimmed first, then ended up grinding the lower center of the bracket exactly like yours.

Good catch, Greg, regarding the fuse in the second charging cable. I did that when I put my last alternator on the truck, which was a 165 amp unit with an external bridge rectifier from DB Electric.

 

Good idea Greg. What size link would you suggest? Should I duplicate the dual 12 ga. wires, or go with a single 10 ga, or single 12 ga?

 

I am not sure, I've been trying to search the wiring manuals for some sort of rating for the fusible links. So far I've been coming up with a dead end. I am not certain how fusible links are sized and what's available. The safest thing would be to match the OEM setup from the other side, so that would be two 12 gauge units. Here is photo of what the OEM links look like.
The grey wires are the links. One pair is for the alternator charging wire (which also carries the GP and AIH relays) and the other pair is for the body power (to fuse panels.)

I'll keep looking for some sort of rating. If I find something then you could simply use a resettable circuit breaker just as easily.

 

Well a quick Google search gave me this. Catalog


<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="189" width="509"><tbody><tr><td style="border:solid windowtext .5pt;border-left:none; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
</td> <td style="border:solid windowtext .5pt;border-left:none; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">18ga. Fusible Link
</td> <td style="border:solid windowtext .5pt;border-left:none; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">protects 14ga. or heavier wired systems </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border:solid windowtext .5pt;border-top:none; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">

</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">16ga. Fusible Link
</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">protects 12ga. or heavier wired systems
</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border:solid windowtext .5pt;border-top:none; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">14ga. Fusible Link
</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">protects 10ga. or heavier wired systems</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">


</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border:solid windowtext .5pt;border-top:none; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">
</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">12ga. Fusible Link
</td> <td style="border-top:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt; border-right:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt" valign="top">protects 8ga. or heavier wired systems </td></tr></tbody></table>

If the link is sized to protect a certain gauge wire, then the amp rating should be taken from the size of the lead wire. I'll check to see what ga. wire I used for the secondary charge wire and size the link accordingly.

 

Good stuff Greg and Chris. Now I know what I need for the secondary charge cable.

Greg,

Did you see my email about the "Good Buy"?