Re: Stupid alternator question...

Posted by MarkB on July 18, 2003 at 19:14:11 from (64.79.82.21):

In Reply to: Stupid alternator question... posted by Fargo on July 18, 2003 at 11:47:05:

Alternator bearing failures used to be quite common, but serpentine belts with spring tensioners have almost eliminated them. I recall taking my Chevy pickup into the dealer for an oil change. The "mechanic" informed me that the alternator bearing was about to go. Well, it did--100,000 miles and six years later!

Alternators used to be quite repairable, but the new style GM alternators can't be easily repaired because there's no easy way to get the diode pack out. And it's difficult to find someone who will sell you the parts. I prefer to repair alternators if I can; my experience with rebuilds is that they're mostly junk. I've had far more "rebuilt" alternators fail prematurely than alternators I've fixed myself.

Note that an alternator may appear to be working fine even though it has one or more blown diodes. That's because it only needs two good diodes to put out something. The only way to be sure is to disconnect the diodes from the stator and ohm them out.

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