question for the Alternator geniuses...

ECU, Wiring, Sensors
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question for the Alternator geniuses...

By teal_dx
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 4:35 am #30441 This is not about my EG, but my EK... Maybe someone will still have some advice:

the alternator on my 96 hx seized up while the car sat for a few months. Bought a new used one from ebay "works excellent" seller had 100% feedback. it came w/o a pulley as described.
So I pulled my old one out, put the pulley on the new one, and then noticed that the douche sent me one with a round connector (92-95) not 96-00 like the auction said.
rather than mess with returns, I had an old chopped up OBD1 engine harness with the round plug, so I cut it off and made a conversion harness to go from my civic's OBD2 plug to the OBD1 alternator.
I have a chilton's for 92-95, and a chiltons and haynes manual for 96-00. After studying all the schematics,:
OBD1:
Black/Yel = fuse box, ignition
White/Blue = fuse box, indicator light, ignition
White/Yel = ecu = A21 pin
Blue = ecu, C5 pin

OBD2:
Black/Yel = fuse box, integrated control unit
White/Blue = fuse box, hot on start
White/Green = ecu, Alt Output Sig
White/Red = ecu, Alt Fr Sig

OBD1 .............. OBD2
Black/Yel.......... Black/Yel
White/Blue........ White/Blue
White/Yel.......... White/Green
Blue.................White/Red

So I plug it in, and hook up the main thick white wire too. Now my entire car dims on/off constantly, dome light, cluster, headlights... if I drive on the road at night, it almost looks like I am flashing my headlights at people But the car seems to run fine.

I measured my 96 pulley with a 92-95 pulley to be sure my 96 wasn't bigger diameter, acting as an underdrive pulley... but both were 2.75" diameter.

Question, do the OBD2 alternators have different AMP rating than OBD1?
What else could cause this to happen?
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By flyinryan122
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:15 am #30446 i had a similar problem. a friend and i got a 1979 honda civic (1st gen!!) swapped out the old 1.2 8 valve for a d16z6, started it for the first time and it did the same thing, took the alternator to our local auto zone for a bench test, passed with flying colors, so we were like wtf after talking to the guy he said he had seen this before and a new replacment would fix it. a little hesitent we just took his word for it and forked out $140 for the new one, and it fixed the problem.
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By suspendedHatch
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 5:00 pm #30466 The regulator on the alternator is bad. I have a OBD1 alternator I'd give you if you weren't all the way out in Ohio.

Hope you left some bad feedback.
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By teal_dx
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 6:12 pm #30474 I sent them a nasty email yesterday, just to see if they want to give me at least a partial refund. If not... then negative feedback!!
Hi, I won a 96-00 honda civic alternator from you. First of all, you shipped me 92-95 alternator with the round plug, not 96-00 with the square plug. But I let it go and got a conversion harness to run the 92-95 alternator on my 96 civic hx. Well I just got the car back together today and the alternator is BAD! The car starts right up but all the lights go dim/normal/dim/normal etc. It is so bad that people think I am flashing my lights at them when driving at night. So now I have to remove the entire left suspension and pull out the left axle again, so that I can remove the bad alternator. Do you test your alternators before you ship them? You need to know your civic products better, OBD1 alternators have the round plugs, OBD2 has a more square plug. This has turned out to be a huge waste of my time.
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By hondajunkee
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:40 pm #30483
teal_dx wrote:I sent them a nasty email yesterday, just to see if they want to give me at least a partial refund. If not... then negative feedback!!
Hi, I won a 96-00 honda civic alternator from you. First of all, you shipped me 92-95 alternator with the round plug, not 96-00 with the square plug. But I let it go and got a conversion harness to run the 92-95 alternator on my 96 civic hx. Well I just got the car back together today and the alternator is BAD! The car starts right up but all the lights go dim/normal/dim/normal etc. It is so bad that people think I am flashing my lights at them when driving at night. So now I have to remove the entire left suspension and pull out the left axle again, so that I can remove the bad alternator. Do you test your alternators before you ship them? You need to know your civic products better, OBD1 alternators have the round plugs, OBD2 has a more square plug. This has turned out to be a huge waste of my time.


did you include a mean cat picture? haha but damn that sucks, hope you get something back
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By teal_dx
- Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:03 pm #30488 oh I was pissed... I finally finished my hx, and now this is keeping me from driving it.

In the meantime, I'm still driving my hatch with no insulation, wipers, or heat! :lol:
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By suspendedHatch
- Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:57 am #30547 You don't have to pull any suspension or axles to get that alternator out. It's a bitch, but if you keep flipping it around and you jack the wheel off the ground, it will squeeze out just barely.

When I bought my first hatch (an EG), I was driving it home and the battery died. Waited about ten minutes and it started up again. I barely limped it home with everything turned off. So the first thing I ever did to my first Honda was change the alternator. My previous car was a Corolla which was extremely easy. So this was a big surprise. But I made it to the concert on time with my new car!
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By teal_dx
- Tue Nov 20, 2007 4:15 am #30549 I took it out of my EG before w/o moving the axle, but on the EK there wasn't enough room between the axle & subframe lip.

The seller said it worked fine in his 96-00 civic - WITH JDM B16 swap :x
I had to explain to him that when you list it for 96-00 civic and don't mention anything about it coming from a swapped OBD1 motor, you're screwing whoever buys it :eh:

gotta love ebay :roll:
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By flyinryan122
- Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:00 am #30580
teal_dx wrote:you gotta post some pics of that project :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

for sure. I'll have to find all the good pics and i'll post them in the d-series threads
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