Alternator repair

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Tony Radford

I'm thinking at this point that the best recourse for me is to pull it and take it to a shop that specializes in alternators.

Tony, seriously, there is nothing to it. You can do a first-rate job in under a half hour sitting at the kitchen table. It's completely intuitive, and goes back together exactly like it came apart -- and nothing comes "flying apart" when you take the back off. The only trick, and it's not much of a trick at all, is holding the brushes back with a little wire when you put it back together and then you yank the wire. Give it a try, if you find you're stumped just take the alternator in and tell them you started the job and got discouraged. But I'm 99% sure that won't happen. The rebuild kit even comes with instructions (which you really don't need but are always nice to have).

EDIT -- And the little wire to hold the brushes back comes in the kit, too.

[Eljaro]

I had my replacement Tuff Stuff alternator go bad and not charging. It was a fairly new unit, so I decided to have a look at it. Taking it apart is not difficult, and what I found when I opened it was that the thick winding wires going to the Diodes had come off, and little tin solder pellets were all over.
I do not know how they soldered the wires and with which tin, but I did bend a small hook at each alternator wire end (there are 6 of them) and soldered the hook over the diode wire sticking out with a good silver solder. All working well now.
The chromed replacement alternator was probably made in China, and the solder used probably sone cheap stuff.
Something else may break in the future, but the wires I soldered will not come off ever, I know that for sure.
So you may have a look yourself at the alternator with confidence and you may solve the problem youself. You can allways put it back together and take it to a shop if you get stranded.