[Mike]

i just installed an ef fairmont alternator in my zook and i noticed the pully was getting fairly hot, is this normal?
also i know i have to upgrade the charge wire off the alternator but i was wondering what gauge wire to use?

Cheers

[royce]

I wouldnt think so, hotter than the rest of it?

min of 8 gauge if I was doing it, can never have too big a cable

[Mike]

the other pulley aren't anywhere nearly as hot
its got brand new brushes in it would that have anything to do with it?

[royce]

no, I would think it would more be caused by a stuffed front bearing, unless the belt was massivley tight or teh pulley rubbing

[Mike]

it spins freely and the pulley doesn't rub on the housing or anything like that

[royce]

is the pulley hotter than the front of the alternator housing?

does the inside of the belt look like its slipping?

[Mike]

the hottest part seemed to be the nut holding the pulley on
the only reason i noticed was it got hot before anything else it was only running for a couple mins the crank pulley was only warm

[royce]

how hot is hot? burn yourself kinda hot?

[Mike]

i could hold my finger on it for a couple seconds then i started to burn kind of hot

[royce]

yeah somethings not right then

loosen the belt off a bit and see what happens

[Mike]

could it have something to do with the size of the pulley?
i temporarily have one off a lucas alternator out of a 2litre cortina

[royce]

hows it compare for diameter compared to the sierra one? if its heaps different you could be turning it too fast but I dont think that would be right at idle

could also be the fact you are using lucas parts, the magic smoke wont be compatible

[Mike]

its smaller in outer diameter and the V in the pulley is deeper
i should of used my bosch cortina pulley

[royce]

have you driven it yet or jsut idling? if your driving it you could be overspeeding it

why dont you just use the sierra pulley like you are supposed to?

[Mike]

it was just idling
the sierra one doesnt fit

[royce]

what does the 7000 threads on the internet say about making it fit?

[Mike]

they say use a different pulley don't they? or change the rest of the pulley to match the one that came on the alternator

[royce]

what pulley do they say to use?

you really should work out the ratio of falcon bottom pulley to falcon alt pulley, then work out the maxium speed it would of turned in a falcon then transfer that over to the sierra to make sure you have the right thing

or jsut leave a sierra alt on it, seriously do you need 100amps going in all the time?

[Mike]

is there seriously a way to use the standard pulley?
i sort of read stuff on outers about it but it was pretty much 10 pages or people saying search
45amps isn't enough for me

[royce]

I have no idea cause every car I have ever known has been massively loaded electrically and I have never bothered to put a 100amp alt on and never had a flat battery problem

[Mike]

i went and loosened of the belt and tried again only ran it for a couple mins and the pulley still got hot, the rest of the alternator was fine just the pulley and it was only idling at about 600revs at the time

could it have something to do with not being wired up properly?

[royce]

I would say either its fine and they normally get hot or the alternator has something wrong with it

either way youll know soon enough

[Mike]

by the way my battery was dead flat (had to put it on the battery charger for a while to even start it) and when it got going at about 600revs it was the battery was sitting at around 13 volts

[royce]

aaaahhhhhhhhhh now the truth comes out

go put the battery on charge overnight and get it fully charged and try again

[Damo]

What is the alignment of the alternator pulley like compared to the crank pulley? It may be that the alignment is out, so the belt is running up on one side of the pulley. This will create friction, and therefore heat. It will probably also lead to the belt jumping off it you leave it like that.

[Mike]

so it might have something to do with the flat battery?

it looks to be pretty much inline but i do have a dodgy waterpump pulley that wobbles a bit

[Damo]

Mike wrote:

so it might have something to do with the flat battery?

it looks to be pretty much inline but i do have a dodgy waterpump pulley that wobbles a bit

With a charged battery, a straight waterpump pulley and a properly aligned belt I doubt you are going to have a problem.

[Mike]

is the slightly wobbly water pump pulley gonna make much difference?
i don't have a fan running off the pulley if that makes a difference

[Scrawny]

Shouldn't make a difference. It'll be the flat battery.