anyone Ever Fixed an alternator?

Dauntless said:

DAND214 said:

It might sound stupid as I didn't read all of this. Did you check the fuse #20 in the engine junction box?

Dan

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What an incredibly stupid thing to expect me to have checked. I mean, a fuse, you really think I'm going to look at THAT? I'll bet YOU are the kind that expects me to make sure there's enough oil. I've noticed that the car runs longer without oil than without coolant, so why have overblown concerns?

So I was in high school and getting going working on cars, if ever there was a car with the hood up for whatever reason, I'd start checking the oil, the radiator, water in the battery, if possible tire pressures. Need I explain to you what I discovered? What's funny is when people reacted to what I found on their car with---"SO?"

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SO?

Dan

It's always a bad idea to jump to conclusions about what failed without doing some tests. Alternators are pretty simple, so only a few likely failure modes.
I have seen things like a corroded or loose connector cause a problem, which you might be able to fix with NO parts. Much more likely the brushes wore out.
I saw one that failed due to power steering fluid contamination. It was located directly under the PS pump, which had a small leak.

It does seem really odd that there is a lack of replacements for that model.

Oreilly auto parts has one in stock the ultima rebuild for $191 does this look like yours? They will ship to you.

OK i looked closer once I posted this. The manual transmission one is out of stock. The automatic transmission is in stock. The difference looks like it is just the Pulley. So take your old one out, take it to an autoparts shop, have them pony up the automatic transmission model. If they are the same except for the pulley, buy it and swap the pulleys.... done and back in business!

I never posted on the resolution of this.

So They wouldn't take an order on the alternator and I didn't get where I felt sure I'd get the right rebuild kit, so I drove my truck for awhile. in the course of seeing if I could tinker it back to working, i discovered that it was charging again, but if you know your alternators, you remain leery of that and I didn't drive far in it.

Until one day I decided I would. Almost made it home again. So after I'd walked the rest of the way and returned for the battery to charge it, I discovered that there was now one in stock some ten miles away. With all the diverted fire traffic it took more than an hour to get there. That was the easy direction, picking this up took most of the day. So I got back after dark and collected the car with the sort of charged battery and had to wait to swap the alternator the next day. Seems like it's not quite right, but I need to take it in for the airbag recall and I"m sure I'll hear plenty about the money they'd like for fixing a bunch of things. For all the additional drama I"m leaving out I did get the alternator in and I am driving the car again. . . .