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-   -   Alternator repair (http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/ac-cobra/112877-alternator-repair.html)

Tony Radford 10-10-2011 04:40 PM
Alternator repair
 
Anyone know of a good alternator repair facility in the Atlanta area? I found one up in Cornelia. I'd like to find one closer if possible.

RICK LAKE 10-11-2011 03:20 AM
You can buy the bearings only or internals.
 
Tony Radford Tony what needs to be replaced? Bearings, brushes, and regulator can be brought as a kit and do your self. Lifetime parts you can get from Autozone, pepboys, O'riellys, Summit and jegs. PApreformance also sells life time parts with upgraded charging systems. There are not hard to rebuild, just need to mark the cases and picture of internal locations on disassembly. Rick l.

Tony Radford 10-11-2011 06:07 AM
Rick, the alternator isn't very old, but I think I toasted it when I ran it on a dead battery. All I know is that it isn't charging. I'm working off the assumption that I killed the internal regulator, but I don't know if that's really the issue. I figured a diagnostic would be key. I did watch a youtube video on rebuilding a one-wire alternator, but my attention span ran out about half way through. Probably not a good idea for me to rip it apart myself. 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.

tboneheller 10-11-2011 06:19 AM
Auto Electric Remanufacturing
1389 Church St. Ext.
Marietta, Ga. 30060
770-424-1273
They can probably fix it while you go next door & enjoy a Brandi's World Famous Hot Dog.

Tony Radford 10-11-2011 06:44 AM
I love hotdogs! Thanks for that.

mpanten 10-11-2011 09:57 AM
Its not really that complicated to rebuild, you can do it

how to rebuild an alternator - YouTube

patrickt 10-11-2011 12:44 PM
You Can Do it, Really.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Radford (Post 1155739)
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 10-11-2011 01:36 PM
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.

tboneheller 10-11-2011 03:00 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Radford (Post 1155745)
I love hotdogs! Thanks for that.

Here is a link to the hotdogs:Brandi's World Famous Hot Dogs - Marietta, GA. The electrical shop is right next door.

Tony Radford 10-13-2011 08:20 AM
Oh well, the alternator checked out fine. So I basically have a good battery connected via one wire to a functioning alternator and the battery ain't charging. Looks like I'll be on a gremlin safari this weekend.

patrickt 10-13-2011 08:46 AM
What made you think your alternator was on the fritz to begin with?

Tony Radford 10-13-2011 09:54 AM
Battery went from good starting turnover to bone dead in 45 minutes of steady driving. Battery checked out fine.

patrickt 10-13-2011 09:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Radford (Post 1156131)
Battery went from good starting turnover to bone dead in 45 minutes of steady driving. Battery checked out fine.
Since you know your battery is good, and you know your 1-wire alternator is good, the next step is to performa voltage drop test along the charging circuit. Here is a diagram showing you how to do that: Alternator Voltage Drop Test

patrickt 10-13-2011 10:07 AM
Typical bad places that cause voltage drops are: 1) Grounds (both the alternator ground and the battery cable to the head/block), 2) The cables at the battery posts themselves, 3) The positive battery cable to the solenoid, you get the idea.... Lately there seems to be a run on "poorly grounded alternators" that rely on their ground via a painted, or powder-coated bracket and bolt.

Tony Radford 10-13-2011 10:54 AM
Pat, thanks for that. I'll start the hunt on Saturday.

Tony Radford 10-15-2011 03:14 PM
OK, here's where I'm at - reinstalled the alternator and fired her up. The ammeter showed a strong charge going on, so I took her for a spin. Just a little ways out, the meter dropped back to zero. Once or twice it jumped over into the charge mode for a few seconds intermittently and back to zero for the rest of the ride. When I got back, I left her running and stuck a voltmeter on the alternator and she read around 11.5 volts at idle and jumped up to around 14.5 when I goosed the throttle. I felt the back of the ammeter to see if there were any loose wires and everything feels tight. Is it possible the alternator has an intermittent output? It isn't obvious looking at the voltmeter. This sucks.

patrickt 10-15-2011 03:27 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Radford (Post 1156545)
Is it possible the alternator has an intermittent output? It isn't obvious looking at the voltmeter. This sucks.
Doubtful. It's more likely you have an intermitttent change in load that the alternator can not handle at idle (low alternator RPM) speeds. Did the low voltage at idle readings correspond to when the fans were running, and the higher voltages at idle to when they were not running?

Tony Radford 10-15-2011 03:46 PM
The fans were running constantly. The alternator kicks in a 3k alternator RPMs. Should be pretty low in the engine RPMs looking at the pulley ratio. Something has happened. It jumped from zero to about 40 amps on the meter and back to zero in a second. The grounds look solid and I don't see any shorts.

patrickt 10-15-2011 04:05 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tony Radford (Post 1156548)
It jumped from zero to about 40 amps on the meter and back to zero in a second. The grounds look solid and I don't see any shorts.
If you just start it up in the driveway, and rev it to 3000 and hold it there, does the ammeter needle move around like that? What it should do is move to a decent charge condition, but then ease back to just above zero after it charges up the battery (which doesn't take very long, usually). It should be nice and smooth except for the moment that a large load comes on (like the fans), and then you might see a quick swing to the negative but it should immediately go back to where it was before the swing (or slighly less since there's an increased load).

Jerry Clayton 10-15-2011 04:24 PM
Tony

haven't read all of your posts but a couple of basics that get overlooked in these cars---being fiberglass and assembled by ametures, lots of times the ground circuits aren't good and sometimes also there is more current flow down the braided stainless hose coverings than the wiring harness wires---run a good sized wire from the alternator mount to the battery negative to see if it helps---also powder coating, teflon tape are big insulators anywhere in the system

other areas are broken leads inside the insulated covering


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