will a ford aspire alternator fit a festiva?

[stingy goose]

Can someone quickly explain what the H or K mean when I look for parts? For example L4 2BBL (K) SOHC is different from L4 MFI (H) SOHC but how?

[Zanzer]

K is a carb car and H is a fuel injected car


L4 2BBL = 2 barrel carburetor

L4 MFI = Multi-port Fuel Injection

[Bert]

Exactly as you describe has happened to me. 97 Aspire alternator (aside from using a serpentine belt instead of a fan belt) appeared to be absolutely identical for application on a 92 Festy. Both pulleys were easy enough to remove in anticipation of a direct swap but alas the Aspire shaft turned out to be slightly larger in diameter and the Festiva pulley wouldn't fit.
I like to think the car manufacturers don't do that kind of 'Store High In Transit' stuff on purpose but it happens far too often.

[DrMaxwellEdison]

^^^^ I did that alternator swap, and when I went to change the pulley I found that same problem, I have friend at the parts store, went through the core pile of bad alternators and found one whose shaft diameter was the correct size and torqued her down with an electric impact wrench... never had a charging problem since....

[Bert]

Well gee DrMaxEdison how many of us poor slobs have access to auto supplier 'core' piles let alone have permission to scour junk yards? 40 years ago every Tom, Dick and Harry frequented auto wreckers for goodies, comparing parts and shopping but now civilians (thanks to liability insurance) are largely prohibited. Other than that though your advice is timely.

[DrMaxwellEdison]

^^^ that said, the Mcparts store will swap pulleys for anyone purchasing a new alternator or p/s pump.... and the autowrecker yard is open to any member of the public over the age of 18, Walth and Nate (Skeeter's Keeper) also use the same yard.... I'm not trying to call them out but I know they've posted about the Pick and Save $65 dollar all you can carry deal that the yard has periodically throughout the year.....

[stingy goose]

Rockauto .com has one listed for $ 81.00 and they will ship to Canada

can't find the one you were talking about, however I found the ripoff for manual tranny alternators. It's 65 bucks for the auto 50amp alt and 110 for the manny tranny 45 amp alt. Talk about a dealbreaker. :confused3:

Oh and real quick here when I buy a new alternator it include the volt regulator correct?

[Banana Bonanza]

Hey you can make anything work if it physically fits in the space. I have an old GM 10si alternator (63A) on my '89 Festy. Works fine. Course I also have a Weber carb with coolant heated choke, so dont need the infamous Festy "choke wire" and its special terminal on the alternator. When I had Festy OEM carb, never had problem with choke so never looked to see how hard to convert to either manual choke or water choke or normal 12V electric choke. Darn if I would give somebody beaucoup bucks for some special alternator just so I could keep some oddball OEM electric choke setup.

I did have to weld up an adapter mount bracket that lets alternator position where pulley lines up properly. I weld, but probably could bolt something similar together with bits of angle iron and use washers to get alternator exactly where pulleys line up if you are creative. Thing is you only do this once. If you replace alternator again, the adapter bracket already exists.

The GM 10si/12si are probably most numerous and popular alternator in North America. Easy to wire and easily available at any parts store and fairly cheap to buy. I personally would stay away from special "one wire" aftermarket versions, but some people like them. The normal 3 wire version is easy enough to wire. Do a search on 10si alternator and many articles how to wire them. Rebuilt one is around $30 for one year warranty and $50 for lifetime warranty and around $80 for one assembled with all new parts by nonOEM supplier. (hint: get lifetime warranty if you are keeping car anytime at all) Junkyard one probably around $20 though luck of draw how long it lasts. These were from 70s and 80s so maybe junkyard version not best bet for long life alternator...

By way pick a part junkyards sounds nice but some of us dont have access to such wonders. One local junkyard guy lets me out in the yard cause he has known me for years, but his is small yard and he cant really afford to give any big price break. Also being small yard doesnt have any huge selection of parts. Most junk yards around here anymore, you wait in the office and they bring the premium priced used part to you. If they are in the mood. How they sell any parts when many of them are higher priced than parts store is beyond me. Some junkyards now only sell "assemblies", no individual alternators, starters, carburetors, etc. They sell engine+tranny+all the bolt on extras for one price. Usually those type junkyards specialize in late model stuff and make most money from car bodies.

[stingy goose]

^^^^ where I live it's completely different. Almost all the junkyards here are ones where you wander through them and take what you want, only a handful are ones where they take the part off for you and bend you over for the price.

It's kind of unfortunate because the ones where you wander the employees usually don't care at all and if you call ahead asking if they have a car they more or less say "come see yourself" and are completely unwilling to help.
Consequently I haven't found a festy anywhere yet.

[getnpsi]

I would do some searching for different yards. Even if it's an hour away it's worth it. I'm totally spoiled in this reagard where I live and still don't take advantage. There are so many candidates for 3 project cars going at once I get ADD and have to double back...

When insurance dries up on those models that's when you attack. There is nothing new at most self service yards. Some profit is better than no profit. Gotta talk them into selling you something. People walking out empty doesn't help their bottom lines.

[stingy goose]

k guys I have checked the voltage and it sometimes jumps as high as 20V it won't stay steady at all, goes down to 8, jumps to 20 it's everywhere.

The culprit may be the voltage regulator I'm guessing and not the alternator?

[kartracer46]

well the Festiva's don't come with an external voltage regulator. You will still need to replace the alternator. Is it an auto or manual? I may have a couple of each I can possibly sell you one if the postage isn't to bad going to CA.

[stingy goose]

well the Festiva's don't come with an external voltage regulator. You will still need to replace the alternator. Is it an auto or manual? I may have a couple of each I can possibly sell you one if the postage isn't to bad going to CA.

It's a manual. 1989. If you could sell me one that would be awesome, buying off ebay is a little sketchy and everywhere else is too expensive.

NAPA wants to charge me 2hundo for the alternator plus it isn't kept in stock so I'd have to wait for it. No thank you! hahaha

[stingy goose]

You guys have been really helpful so far, and because of that I know of the different "plug styles". But I'm wondering if I could run an auto tranny alternator with a manual transmission festiva, because I found one in my area for cheap and if it will work than that would be great.
I know the auto carries 5 amps more current than the manual but I'm going to be running subwoofers anyway so I figure the extra current would not hurt.

[Banana Bonanza]

I think all the automatic Festies had fuel injection. Anybody out there knows better please correct me. Thus alternators for ALL Festies with fuel injection had alternator missing the special lower voltage terminal to power the electric choke on the carburetor.

So yes I would think you could use an alternator for an automatic/fuel injected Festy, but you would need to either convert your choke to one that worked off 12V or go to a manual choke or perhaps adapt a water heated choke.

In other words if you want an OEM carb to work with its original choke, then you need an alternator made for a carb Festy that has the special terminal.

Now there might be a work around. People that want a 12V battery and alternator in an antique car that came from factory with 6V system need way to run 6V accessories. I've seen various cobbled up shadetree systems using old ignition ballast resistors like used on 12V systems with point type ignition. Not so great as resistance and thus voltage can change as they get hot. And there was a company selling a resistor for this purpose called Volt-A-Drop. But look at this webpage, this guy came up with better answer: http://www.studebaker-info.org/tech/6-12V/6-12-6.html What I am saying is it might be possible you could use this setup to power the OEM electric Festy choke.