The Lifetime warrantied Alternator

[Blacktank]

i use black rtv on all the firewall holes,when your really bored take of the wiper cowl and make sure it is draining good and seal up everything,mine was plugged up with debris behind the wheel wells and would fill up and leak from every screw in the engine compartment

[sternwake]

I had a silicone collapsible dog bowl that was turned into a new gasket, and I had a tube of black rtv on hand. Its sealed.

The New ND alternator's output at hot idle is absolutely pathetic, barely above 25 amps.
Very disappointed.

Headlights on, blower motor on low, perhaps fridge compressor running, and it has barely 2 amps extra available for battery charging.

The Chrysler/bosch 50/120, had 10 to 12 amps available for battery charging with blower motor on high, headlamps on at hot idle



Even if they sold me a 40/90 as a 50/120, it is falling well short of 40 amps hot idle.

Have not yet tested for higher rpm output.

Its physically smaller body, likely make it a better eventual swap for the AC compressor.
Gonna rebuild the chrysler/bosch and return it to its original location.

[sternwake]

Stock location a large frame alternator will not fit.

Dual alternators will be more than enough. ...that ac compressor bearings wont last forever anyway

[sternwake]

Opened up the failed alternator.

While the alternator  water torture  drip did nothing good, it was not the cause of failure.

The brush holder was sitting too high, and the lower brush was not riding fully on the slip ring.
When it wore out enough fill that gap between slip rings, contact was lost.

Easy Peazy fix. most likely, just going to shave some height off the feet of the brush holder, and grind the step off of the one brush and it should be fully functional again. But I'll delve a bit deeper to satisfy my curiosity and give it some spit and polish.   

   


   


 Shoulda coulda woulda.....saved myself some $$$$,  but......... I have a backup alternator now. 

Sometime in the future, 2 alternators will feed my hungry 103AH Northstar g31 AGM, which has been sucking up 65 grid powered amps for 21 minutes so far, and has only climbed to 13.9v so far. 
 It has raised 4 degrees F in those 21 minutes accepting 65 amps. from 54.5 to 58.5f.  I Took it to 81 amp hours from full and it was holding 11.6v under a 1.5 amp load, before combining my 2 plug in charging sources and turning off almost all possible loads.

[sternwake]

I'm not going to be one of those consumers, who punishes a vendor, for a bad personal decision.

The modern entitled consumer fills me with seething contempt, as does hypocrisy.

I could have fixed the chrysler/bosch alternator easily without purchasing anything, but ultimately, in retrospect, I wanted a new one, and had blinders on.

I thought the ND design was better, but Chinese parts assembled in Malaysia speaks volumes. Lesson learned.
Oh well, not my first mistake, wont be my last.

I am not happy with hot idle speed output, but it has been of no consequence, so far.

I've not actually tried maxing it out while hot again. Perhaps it will do better now that it has ~2800 miles on it, with the brushes mating better to the slip rings. Perhaps not.

After I return the Chrysler/Bosch 50/120 to the engine bay, I'll open the ND, voiding its 'limited lifetime warranty' and have a look, see what could be done much better than what assembly persons were taught was acceptable... and 'geterdone you wage$lave'

I'll come out of this with a much better grasp of how alternators work and are built, and confidence.

Edumacation costs money, in this case about 168$.
So be it.

[sternwake]

   

This remanufactured alternator was installed June 2015 and the brush was riding here the whole time!

Looks like a direct short to me.  

All sorts of room for improvement of conductive surfaces.

Should have inspected it in 2015.......

[Blacktank]

was the other brush riding up top? fixture not lining it up right?

have plenty of brush left

[sternwake]

The upper brush would not easily stay in place for the photo, but rides the slip collar above the one with its own positioning step. Pretty obvious where it rides in both photos.

I've lowered the brush holder about 1.5mm and it attaches to the alternator body much more securely than before.

There was about 1mm of the lower brush riding in the gap between collars so the lower brush will now ride 0.5mm just below the top of the bottom slip ring. I can no longer see the gap looking through the bottom brush holder, but easily could before taking file and sanding block to the footings of the brush holder. 

Turns out a pair of bamboo chop sticks, the square end, fits nearly perfectly in the brush slot. the full length of the holder, and sits very securely inside.

I rounded the tip to mimic the brush face, then I superglued 220 grit paper to that inner round. A  fine bristle brass brush  removes the copper from it when it gets loaded on the sandpaper.

Sort of an in place lathe.  The upper slip ring is way out of round, the lower one was much better.  Its very easy to hear when spinning the pulley, as it gets more true, cutting only the high spots.

I've got it about 90% true  before the task became mindnumbing. I have finer sandpaper grits. for tomorrow.
The stainless steel wire brushes for the dremel turned all copper mating surfaces, back to copper color.
   

[sternwake]

   

Not calling this good enough yet, although i cannot feel the rough looking spots.

This tiny thin copper strap joins the bases of the rectifiers. Seems highly inadequate to me.

   

[sternwake]

You are going back on ignore, as you annoy me, greatly.
If that has been your mission, well done, if not, then I'm sorry for you and those that have to interact with you regularly.

I bought one reman alternator, in 2004, the rest, until the ND, were free and I can swap them in less than 15 minutes. If Oreilleys coughed up another free one this thread if even started, would have ended on page one and I would have learned and shared nothing

I'll be giving some spit and polish to both alternators, and posting pics of what I find and results of my efforts.
No responses required as I am asking no Questions.