Sigh...which CS144 alternator for the upgrade?

[DoctorPopcorn]

so sorry not to have responded earlier. had no idea there was a thread response. yes, I got mine to fit. iirc, I had to loosen the tensioner mount to slide it in. used a power steering belt instead. has been working wondefully well.

No, no worries at all, and glad you got yours in. I was able to get mine in without loosening the tensioner mount, somehow, and using a PS belt, got good tension on the alternator now. Same here, battery light is gone, battery is charging perfectly, and so far, nothing blown from the CS144 and not doing the Big 3 yet, fingers crossed. I forget exactly what part it was on the AC tensioner, but we ended up power tapping it.

For future folks, with my snapped AC & power steering tensioner bolts, I was able to drill out the AC tensioner bolt enough to chip apart (years of crusted oil), disassemble and yank out the tensioner assembly, and I got lucky and found fully-threaded M8 x 1.25 bolts at Ace Hardware to replace them. In this post here, Arnezie sourced some M8x1.25x90mm bolts from Amazon.

My brother snapped his PS tensioner bolt on his '97 doing belts a year ago and just tack-welded the bolt head, so to each their own.

 

[psea17]

so sorry not to have responded earlier. had no idea there was a thread response. yes, I got mine to fit. iirc, I had to loosen the tensioner mount to slide it in. used a power steering belt instead. has been working wondefully well.

...ANNNND IT DIED! lol. about to replace it. glad it has a lifetime warranty

 

[calimobber]

I had picked up my ac-delco cs-144 from amazon damaged box maybe 7 years ago. Some people say the stock belt size doesnt fit but mine was just tight.


Random fact about mine, I started getting the battery light on mine and a long story short the nut on the inside off the alternator came off. I forget exactly how it was wired since its been a while by I think mine was a bolt that screw into the alternator or its a stud with 2 withs on either end.


But I was able to stick the bolt back into the alternator and pull tensiuon on the wire and zip tie it off untill I got home. I opened up the alternator and had to retighten down the nut from inside and put it all together.

random info to put in the back of your mind if you installed one.

 

[psea17]

mine was much easier to install w/ the longer power steering belt as opposed to the standard alternator belt.