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i called a local place that specializes in rebuilding alternators and asked how much it would cost to make mine 150 Amp. He told me it would be cheaper and i would get better performance if i bought a GM alternator and let him rebuild it he said it would cost $150 for a 150 amp and $175 for a 175 amp alternator. i know the price is good but are GM alternators good?

ask him if thats an INSTALLED price... b/c if you start getting other makes of alternators and try and put them in your car... ESPECIALLY our car, its very hard. Custom brackets have to be made, and the belt length needs to change... I would go w/ just an upgrade mx-3 alternator, or a built from scratch custom one.

he said a beefed up mazda one would cost more and be less reliable then the gm one

Too bad that guy's an idiot. GM is an american company, and is therefore not up to date on electronics, or electrical components. Unlike the japanese who have always been generations above the rest. My alternator didn't die until it had 180,000 miles on it, and for the last 45,000 miles, I have had a 550 watt stereo on it.

he says that b/c if you rewind the factory alternator, it creates a lot more heat than it is used to. You won't get it to last as long if you do it that way. But make sure its a direct fit if you get a GM... cuz if not, its gonna be very expensive to get it installed. Local mechanic wanted like 200$ to install mine, so I did it myself. Cost me 50$ to get the belt on properly though.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ben Chinburg:<BR><STRONG>Too bad that guy's an idiot. GM is an american company, and is therefore not up to date on electronics, or electrical components. Unlike the japanese who have always been generations above the rest. My alternator didn't die until it had 180,000 miles on it, and for the last 45,000 miles, I have had a 550 watt stereo on it. </STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Japanese always generations above? the soviets and americans led the electronics field at least into the 1960s. look at the names of most components or circuts that are named after someone. Even still IBM leads data storge research by a long margin. Texas Insturments can meet or beat most of what's produced by the japanese manufacturers, and Intel and others can take the rest. Where's silicon valley? <BR>The reason good stuff comes from japan, is because it's cheap to produce there, they've got an educated workforce, excelent proccess techniques, and it increases the market. There generally not in posesion of the best technology though.<P>An alternator is NOT an electronic device, but and ELECTRICAL one. In this regard GM has an very good track record. <P>Anyway the GM alternator is probably better (aside from alignment issues), because it's bigger(probably), and can be rewound more easaly(this is usually the difference in cost of rewind). <P>mzdspd: If you can get it properly alligned then I'd go for the GM one, or anything bigger and more reliable than the stock one.

Anyone know what kind of alt might match up mest? Also how would you align it? Just with shims/washers?

FYI - Mazda doesn't make its own alternators, Denso does. I just swapped a V6 alternator onto my B6T, had to get a new pulley but the new one is 90A vs the 60A that I had before. I have my doubts that GM builds their alternators in house, most likely contracted out to some other company - ie. Denso. I would be very careful in getting an alternator that isn't designed for your car, especially the 4 cyl. No need to aggrevate the potential snapping of the crank snout.