So to make a very long stupid story short, i took out my old alternator on my 1999 SI and went to get a replacement from Autozone, had my tested blah blah blah... Gave them my core and then got a new remanufactured unit from them. After getting the new unit in, the upper tensioner bracket will only go so far causing the belt to have a large amount of play and on top of that the origional bolt that is supposed to fit onto the bracket that goes through the alternator doesnt go in either.

So i had some business to take care of so i had to put the car on hold for two days, i go back to autozone to see if there is a different belt. There is, so i get it and go back to see if it fits... and it still doesnt.

So basically i have been trying multiple places to try and find a belt that fits, and the worst thing is that my old alternator is gone and i cant even just put it back in. So i go back there compare another unit they have and bitch at them, basically they tell me that i am fuked, and pretty much kick me out when i ask for anything else. On top of that i am at school and dont really have access to a garage anymore.

Anyone else had fitment issuses like this in the past?

any help would be great.

 

still need help, thanks HT

 

if the replacement alternator is the same, maybe its just the way your adjusting the tensioner??? give it another shot, bolt everything up, put the belt on, then try adjusting the tensioner.

 

i have tried this many many times. the belt is simply too small...

its been guess and check from belt to belt...

My only other idea was to put some washers behind the upper bracket and hopefully get some more room to work with to help the belt tension.

 

i just replaced the alt on my ej1 with an autozone one this weekend using my old belt without any problems. do u have any pics?

 

I know when I replaced mine (seems like every month b/c of some crappy wiring from the guy who owned it) my belt was very tight so I used a crow bar and a buddy and had him pull the crow bar to move the alternator to the back of the adjuster bracket while i tightened the bolt. Maybe that will work if your belt is too short?

Also what do you mean by the original bolt doesn't go in? Like the top one doesn't fit in? or are you talking about the bottom one?

 

are you sure they gave you the right one. not all b-series alternators are the same.

for example, i have a jdm b16. thought i can use one out of a 99 si, discovered that didn't work. apparently the only one that was good was one from a 92-93 integra, nothing else seemed to work.

make sure it's the correct alternator.

 

It's wrong.

 

Did you have a lightend pulley set? If so then the stock belt usually doesnt work. If you have to take a piece of string and wrap it around the crank pully and alternator pully. Then take it off without loseing the measurement you got and take to ur parts store and tell them to match up a belt with the measurement you have. Im sure there is one out there that fits. If you did have a pulley set then get on the website for wat brand of pulley you have and it usually tells you what belt sizes to use.

 

ya check your belt length and just buy a new belt and swap the belts... it could be your old alternator had a overdrive pulley and they do need a shorter belt...
when i switched my alternator to a a highpower unit with a overdrive pulley i had to fab up a custom bracket to get a longer upper arm to adjust it tight enough.

 

nope no under drive pulleys, i am the second owner of this car and when i got it, it was bone stock.

Heres the deal, its nothing to do with pushing the alternator foward, it simply bottoms out on the bracket.

I went back to autozone and spoke with these walking retards and they brought out all there units and compared them and they are all the same, then i argued with them over differences in motors specs from D16 to B16, i almost jumped over the counter and choked this smug *****.

Whatever, i am leaving for school and am gonna try to find a proper belt, like i mentioned i dont have a garage to work on and or jack stands for my parking lot so its a little hard to work on the car, oh and its been below 20* for the last week here...

 

I'm going to try to help you with this if I can.

I work at another Autozone. But I know a little bit about 6th gen Civics, so hopefully I can at least give a little insight.

I just looked up your car (1999 Civic Si) and it gave me the following results:
ALTERNATOR
Unit Manufacture: Mitsubishi
Amperage: 75 amp
Pulley Type: 4 groove serpentine pulley
Fan: Internal Fan
Regulator: Internally Regulated
P/N: 13828


Then for a 2000 Civic Si, which I would assume would be the same:
ALTERNATOR
Unit Manufacture: Nippondenso
Amperage: 80 amp
Pulley Type: 4 groove serpentine pulley
Fan: Internal Fan
Regulator: Internally Regulated
P/N: 13826

I have the first one in stock, so I can look at it for you, but the second one would have to be ordered and my store has recently decided that in order to order something you have to pay for it first. So I don't think I can get it for you here so I can take photos or anything.

I DO have all the images the company provides of each alternator though. I can take photos (I have no scanner...) if you'd like me to.

The belts are also different.

305K4 for the 1999 and 315K4 for the 2000. That means the '99 is calling for a 30.5 inch alternator belt and the '00 is calling for a 31.5 inch alternator belt.

I'll have to check Honda's numbers once I get home, but this could be a mistake in Autozone's system too. I know lots of the taillight bulbs are wrong for our cars in their system too.

 

wow thanks. i noticed when talking to them that all the untits we looked up had only one difference from my stock one to the replacement, and that was the upper part of the alternator that was suppoesed to have a bolt go through it has a grove for a screw, and the stock one doesnt... thats the only noticable difference. Even before i bought the new one we compared it to the old one and they look dead nutts even.
Belts that i have tried, 30.5, 30, 29.5, and 29. i have a 27.5 sitting at my place at school, i am going to give it a try and see what happens tomorrow

 

Here's the big difference that Autozone shows for 1999 and 2000 Si alternators.

I have the print outs from Autozone too, but saving these images from their site was much easier than not taking a crappy photo of a photo. lol

1999


2000


So they're pretty obviously different.

Wish I could have helped to solve it.

 

yeah i got the top one. the only difference they had there was between the canadian model between the US version i obviously bought the U.S model

Every search i did showed that no one else has had this problem. I need to look at it again and see if there is anyway that i over looked anything, but i personally dont think that i am that stupid considering that i have pulled/built and done all my motor work on my car for almost 6 years now.

 

The US/Canada thing actually has to do with where the car was built.

Yours is a US built model anyway though. Just like all US coupes.

Let me know if I can help you anymore.