Alternator

Well…I was driving the other night (Friday) to either take or pick up my fiance from work, and I was on a 50mph road so I pulled strong through 1st and 2nd and as I was nearing the red line in 2nd I noticed my instrument lights dim and the battery light come on, so I let off the gas and everything goes back to normal…so I went and had the battery/alternator checked the next morning and they said both were bad. I could drive for a while, but they both need to be replaced. So I went to my fiance’s dad’s work yesterday and picked up a new alternator because he could get me a 20% discount.

So now I need to change them out. Any ideas how to make this easy? I know I couldn’t even change my stinkin’ serpentine belt easily and that was only about 6 weeks ago. I think I’m gonna do what I did to get the belt changed and call up my bro-in-law at a Caddy dealership and ask for him to help me. Unless you kids have an easy way to do this…

  • Darron

P.S. Also in a couple weeks I’m gonna get an Optima Yellow Top battery… If you choose “yes” in the poll post why you say yes.

If your replacin the battery might as well relocate it. I’m gonna relocate mine soon after I get a box for it, just clears out the engine bay some and provides a little weight distribution, not much but some. I’m mainly doin it for looks.

And never had to replace the alt. so I couldn’t tell ya but good luck let me know how it goes and how hard it was I’m sure I’ll have to replace it sooner or later so might as well find out now.

Well I’m lookin’ through my Haynes manual and it’s saying I have to take out the coolant reservoir, which means moving the power steering tank and the cruise servo… I’m real excited about this whole thing. Looks like Wednesday evening may be work on car time rather than sit around and talk about the wedding time. (The parents are all meeting for the first time at dinner…may not be all bad…) I’m not too excited…

  • Darron

Relocating it , as sully said, opens up the engine bay some. Makes it easier to work on that side of the car, should you need to. It’s also out of the way should you ever decide to mount a turbo there, as many have done. Also, if you’re more into the sound thing, it DRASTICALLY shortens the ammount of power wire you have yto run to the amplifiers. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m done, I gotta go to work though, I’ll explain more of what happened later. Not that hard really, just tedious.

  • Darron

Okay…my manual was wrong (a li’l). I did have to move the coolant overflow, but I did NOT have to touch the Powersteering or cruise in anyway. Whole process took me about 2.5 hours, but that’s because I stopped, and put some back together, then started again. I had to take my strut bar off too. (obviously so I could get to the coolant tank) It’s really pretty straightforward. No hidden tricks or anything. Just make sure you connect everything tightly and take off your - battery. I didn’t put a connector on right and had issues with it. (It was loose and my tach would die with the engine still running and dash lights would go on and off) Next item up…Optima Yellow Top. Still debating if I wanna do the trunk move or not…

  • Darron

Good to hear you didn’t have any trouble with it.

nice, I’ve been wanting to do mine for a while now.

Okay…anybody know how to do a trunk move? It would probably be pretty easy since I’ve got an amp back there right now, I could probably just use that power wire to run to the back right? If anyone can point me towards a write up, or give one, I’d much appreciate it. I haven’t bought the battery yet, but I’m not waiting too much longer (before or on Wednesday)

  • Darron

Well, I don’t think your amp power wire is sufficient for battery relocation. There are relocation kits out there on the market. I would strongly suggest you get one of those. That way, you know the wiring will be good to go.

Yeah, I didn’t know if the wire would be enough or not. It is pretty thick, but whatever… Next time I have a chance (hopefully soon) I’ll look for a kit. Hopefully I can find one quick and have it shipped quick 'cause I’d like to move it the day I install the battery.

  • Darron

(I really wish I had a vacation before the show in WI so I could go down to AL to see Scott and maybe get some help with stuff, but oh well. I’ll figure something out sometime.)

LOL

IN another 2 weeks or so I’ll be in FL, so comming here to AL wouldn’t do you much good…BUT if you came to see me in FL, you would have the help af ALOT of ZX2 owners 8)

-Scotty

Sorry to be a little off topic but can you substitute on of the alternators for a Mustang application that has the one wire? Personally I feel that would be a beneficial mod for several out there.

Hey, I have a 2003 ZX2. I was wondering if there is anything different that needs to be done from the one written about earlier. Thanx

Autozone sells 4awg wire which i used (someone told me use 0 awg, but china is buying up all our copper for their indust. revolution, so copper is priced ridiculous) next go buy 2 cable u-bolt clamps to connect the 4 gauge to o.e. positive wire. insulate as much fo the connection as you can stand to look at. then i ran mine below the chassis and securd it with a thousand zip-ties along the brake lines (STAY AWAY FROM MOVING PARTS WHEN ROUTING) you will need to drill a hole and use a grommet (for insulation) to enter trunk. then ground negative as close to battery as possible (you may remove the o.e. battery ground wire from chassis and use that or upgrade gound w/ extra 4 gauge.) if you’re in a miserably cold winter area buy a batt. mount box and fill with foam packing material you will also want to install an inline fusible link @ the battery to protect from explosion should your positive run short-out. hope this helps. mine cost around $30 and took abouut an hour

Autozone sells 4awg wire which i used (someone told me use 0 awg, but china is buying up all our copper for their indust. revolution, so copper is priced ridiculous) next go buy 2 cable u-bolt clamps to connect the 4 gauge to o.e. positive wire. insulate as much fo the connection as you can stand to look at. then i ran mine below the chassis and securd it with a thousand zip-ties along the brake lines (STAY AWAY FROM MOVING PARTS WHEN ROUTING) you will need to drill a hole and use a grommet (for insulation) to enter trunk. then ground negative as close to battery as possible (you may remove the o.e. battery ground wire from chassis and use that or upgrade gound w/ extra 4 gauge.) if you're in a miserably cold winter area buy a batt. mount box and fill with foam packing material you will also want to install an inline fusible link @ the battery to protect from explosion should your positive run short-out. hope this helps. mine cost around $30 and took abouut an hour

Running your wires outside of the car should be a last resort option. This can cause problems down the road if moisture gets into the wires from a tear in the sheathing. You can easily damage the wires from a stone that kicks up into the wire. Take the time and run your wires through the car (firewall, cab, trunk). Its more time consuming but prevents BIGGER headaches down the line.