EA Nightmare Alt

[jeepbanging]

For all the car audio guys involved...Here's my story

Alright so I’m gonna start from the beginning. I bought this alt from E.A. at the beginning of February and ever since I got it all it has been is trouble. When I first received it, I bought a ½” smaller belt because that is what he recommended. I will admit, when I got the alt a friend of mine installed the alt with the regulator (like this….pos on the regulator to the batt pos, not a switched source, but was only on there when the car was running and was only on there for about 10 minutes because the car did not run right). So I called him and told him this. He told me to send it in to see if anything went wrong with the alt. That night that we first installed the alt, I fixed the alt wiring and had everything the right way. I turned the system on (at that time 1 AP3k using a smd dd1 to set the gains, and then backed down even more because of voltage and drop) and was dropping to the low 12s and even 11s (I have 2 deka intimidator 100 ah group 31 batts also that have been tested a total of 5 times to see if they are good…tested perfect). Also, the alt was making some weird noises and all of my lights were flickering and the voltage would never stay still, so there was no setting the voltage. I would set it at 14.6, or at least try, and it would jump to 15.5 and go all the way down to 14.3. I have videos that I can post to show this. So, I sent the alt in to see what he would say about it. He got it and said that he found the FLD wire coming out of the alt (18 gauge wire) was a little pinched in one section of it and he said that was probably the problem of all of this. This happened during shipping because I have pics of the alt before shipping. He fixed the wire, added on a little bit longer of wire, and shipped it back because he said it was working fine. I received the alt back, had Thomas Collins install the alt with a relay and everything, grounded to frame and everything so that it was just perfect. When hooked up, it still did the exact same thing as before….Lights flickering, jumpy voltage, bad voltage drop, everything the same as before. So I lived with it for a while, because I took Nates word for it of it all being my fault. At shows people asked why my voltage was so bad with a h.o, alt…I never said a bad thing about the alt, always just blamed myself cuz I didn’t wanna get into all the crap that was involved. So after spending about 200 dollars on new parts (new belt tensioner, idler pulley, 2 different serpentine belts, more 0g wire for more big 3, grounding supplies, etc) the alt still did not perform any better. Now is when I really am getting irritated, because not only did I spend over 400 dollars for this alt, but 200 more dollars to only attempt to make this thing work. By this time I was running 1 planet audio big bang 2400.1 (1 250 amp fuse for the amp, 2 runs of 0g OFC wire from front to back batts, grounded to frame, etc). Still the same thing happened. I had the alternator clamped while on my car, it clamped 55 amps at idle and 125 amps at 2500 rpms that is with the system on full tilt. After trying to contact Nate several…No tons of times…I finally got a response when I posted the long explanation on the gpi forum. He still was blaiming me for the alt not working correctly, saying that my wiring job was causing the problem. (I have screen captures of all convos between us, so if need be I can show those too. I also have emails between me and him, and can show those too). So I sent the alt back a second time. He got it and said that the belt was slipping (black dust on alt). Okay, I admit I argued with him about it. He made a video of the alt on a bench that was doing 200 amps, but immediately removed it. I asked nicely for him to repost it. Finally, after arguing yet again he did. This time I got smart, and downloaded the video for myself. I will be posting this video for anyone to see. After talking with a bunch of others (companies from around the u.s, friends that work on alts, others) they said maybe the fld wire was too small. So he upgraded the fld wire to 10g wire. He sent the alt back to me. I put the alt back on, still doing the same thing. I changed all my wiring, added better and more grounds, everything…still same results. The external reg is running off of the MAIN IGNITION wire of my jeep, keep in mind. Apparently, the alt kept turning on and off, CAUSING BELT SLIP (which is where we see the black dust from) and weird noises to come from the alt. So he told me to run a wire from battery pos to regulator pos while car was running (this is how I had it hooked up at the beginning). Yes it did stop the flickering lights and everything, but makes no sense why my main ignition wire won’t turn it on. So, now the alt is running on a toggle switch from batt pos to toggle switch to relay to regulator (I flip the switch after car is started to turn on alt, and flip the switch off before car is turned off to turn it off). Now that the alt is on the toggle switch, the belt slip went away (I can prove this buy videos that I can take and pictures) Still, the alt is not working correctly. I ran the 1 amp and would drop to 11s like it was nothing. Running 2 amps now, same thing…dropping to 12s and 11s. I can put it to you this way..The alt has been clamped twice since then, still coming up with around 120 amps at 2500 rpms and 55 at idle. Voltage being set at 14.6. After having several bad confrontations with e.a, I finally quit trying to get a hold of him because he no longer wanted to help me. I mean I just can’t believe that I paid over 400 bucks for an alt and him to just not want to help me anymore. Also, more videos will be coming soon of the alt and how it is now, along with internal videos just to let you all see the internals of this “250 amp” alt.

I’m not here to bash or slander a company, but its kind of hard to believe this alt is doing 250 amps when ALL of my wiring has been looked over by friends, about 3 businesses that are local to me that I can take my jeep to, others who have ran jeep alts, etc and im only getting the 120 amps out of it at over 2000 rpms. This thing was supposed to do 170 amps at idle and 250 at 2000 rpms. He is also quoted saying that he benched this alt when he first built it and it did “366 amps”. This alt is in a factory casing, I don’t believe you can get that much out of a factory case alternator. Also, looking at the back of the alt, you can see the rectifier. The rectifier, when compared to my oem alternator (120 amp Chrysler Denso factory alt) they look the same. The E.A. alt rectifier is aluminum and the exact same size as the oem. I cant wait to open this alt up and see for myself what kind of parts are exactly used, but oh wait he marked the back of the alt (the bolts have a red mark on them and a mark on the actual alt that are in line – just to make sure I didn’t undo this alternator to see the internals I’m guessing). Anyway, this alt one way or another is going to be taken apart and exposed because I really want to see what this alt has in it

__________________

[SnowDrifter]

[Guest]

damn man. I always hate hearing bad stories from companies like this. such bull shit

[SnowDrifter]

But on the real... Someone want to give some cliff's notes? My ADD is going full bore right now lol

[armykyle1]

too much reading honestly

[armykyle1]

Wait... One post and you post a bashing thread? wtf....

[SINTORMAN]

Wait... One post and you post a bashing thread? wtf....

He's legit Kyle.. It's worth reading.

**Basically EA screwed him on his alternator and won't help him anymore**

[k3n12ock]

tl;dr

[jeepbanging]

I'm not bashing anyone, I'm basically explaining what happened with me.

Yes it might have been my first post. But I figured I would let one of the largest Communities see what I have dealt with. I have read other stories on here of nightmares with Excessive Amperage Also.

[n1ghtsn1p3r]

All the links spread out throughout the post make it look fishy to me.

Just sayin'