In a message dated 1/17/2002 9:01:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,
cucvman@jam.rr.com writes:
<< Question. Is it better to replace the alternator or have it rebuilt? >>
A little alternator story, for what it's worth.
A few years ago, I needed to purchase an alternator for a civilian
application, a farm tractor. I puchased a rebuilt one from an auto parts
store. It failed within two months. The next two replacements also failed. l
took the last one apart and discovered that the bare stranded wire that is
soldered to the diode posts was soldered on with acid-core solder. (Or at
least, the rebuilder had used an acid flux).
The heat and moisture in the engine environment had caused the acid to
gradually eat away the wire terminal on the tops of the diodes, causing
high-resistance connections, which in turn caused more heat at the
connections, making the situation gradually worse, until the wires broke off,
resulting in a no-charge condition.
I heated the connections and removed as much of the acid-core solder as I
could, then neutralized the remaining acid with baking soda. I then
resoldered the connections with resin-core solder, sprayed the whole thing
with clear electrical sealant, put everything back together, and the
alternator has worked flawlessly for over ten years.
Maybe this will help one of you guys in the future, if you have an alternator
(s) that keep failing for no apparent reason. My advice is not to assume
that a rebuilt one is as good as a new one. Like most industries and
products, these days, there will always be someone who doesn't know their
job, and you will have to do it for them.
apb
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Feb 06 2002 - 11:49:30 PST