On an aside; once you get a decent alternator, there is no reason why you
can't keep it running forever.
There are 3 things I've seen go wrong with these: (in order of failure
proclivity)
1. Diodes. (not the diodes themselves, but the crappy mechanicals.)
2. Bearings (obvious- makes a rushing or scraping noise before they fail)
3. Brushes ("battery" light on - no charge) Bad brushes will also kill a
regulator sometimes.
After experiencing many alternator failures, I finally began to look into it
and do a failure analysis:
The biggest problem is the diode array. The diodes themselves are little
"hockey puck" things about 10mm in diameter. There are 6 of them, and they
are mounted to a heatsink. The problem is that these diodes appear to be
"glued on" instead of a secure physical mounting using pressure as intended.
If you look at the diode array, there are 3 on each side of the heatsink.
One side of each of these diodes is attached directly to the heatsink,
while the other is attached to a little copper tab. The problem is that
"attached" is a loose word here. It appears to be some kind of glue or bad
solder, either way it's insufficient to make a reliable diode array.
My solution was to slightly separate the 2 halves of the heatsink assembly
and put 2 strips of non-conductive fiberglass PCB (printed circuit board)
material in between the diodes in the air gap that is normally between the 2
sets. Then I clamped the heatsink assembly tightly back together with the
original screws. This puts physical pressure on the 2 connections for each
diode, and this is how this style of diode was originally intended to be
mounted/connected in the first place. If done right it will last forever.
Once this mod is done, that takes the diode pack off the list above. Then
it's only bearings and brushes. My local pep-boys carries a $18 "Ford
alternator rebuild kit" which includes the brushes, regulator, and bearings.
The brushes work with a little filing, and the front bearing (the only one
that ever seems to fail) fits perfectly.
I have never had a diode pack fail since doing this mod, and when/if I hear
bearing noise, I replace the bearing and brushes.
-Phil
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Received on Thu Mar 17 12:55:58 2005
