A lost art: Alternator repair

[G-Body_Vet]

Since I'M breaking down my 455's alternator for powder coating I figured that I'd post some pics. The reason behind this thread is that a lot of people spend upwards or $50 (in our cars anyway) when they have noisy bearings, bad brushes, or a bad rectifier; all of which can be replaced for less than $15 in most cases.

There's bearings on each end of the case. In my example one end has ball-bearings, the other has needle bearings. Both were driven out easily with a deep well 1/2" socket and a small hammer.

This side un-bolts and the bearing comes out with a small love-tap.

After media blasing both sides of the case.

Before blasting

After blasting

The center section area is being painted AMC blue to match my 455. I have some black-chrome powder coat plans for several engine parts. I'll post pics when I'm done. The alternator case is getting treated to it as well.

I hope these pics help someone down the road next time when they hear alternator noise. Rebuilding an alternator is a piece of cake! There's no need to waste excessive money on a cheap 1 year warranty re-man.

 

[Mike P]

I still rebuild alternators, but only for myself now. As you said it’s a pretty simple procedure and cheap parts wise. I stopped doing it on customers cars when my labor rate when to $40 an hour many many years ago, I’m at $75 now and it’s cheaper for the customer to just replace it with a rebuilt.

I would rethink blasting the housing for the windings. The insulation on the windings is very thin and easily worn away causing shorts between the coils. It’s also very hard to get all the blasting media out, if nay falls off inside the case it really makes short work of the new bearings and brushes. Normally I just use a wire wheel on the end of a die grinder to clean this before painting.

 

[Bowiemontecarlo86]

You guys should make a how to thread on rebuilding alternators. I would deff rebuild mines from now on if I see how its done.

 

[Mike P]

Just do a search, there is already a ton of rebuilding articles and videos already on the net.

 

[Longroof79]

Good thread, Mike.
Building an alternator yourself with premium parts is a lot better than buying some questionable "rebuild" from your local parts store. In other words, you know what you have when it's done, not just something that's been cleaned up and had brushes replaced.

 

[Highwood Malibu]

Good thread, Mike.
Building an alternator yourself with premium parts is a lot better than buying some questionable "rebuild" from your local parts store. In other words, you know what you have when it's done, not just something that's been cleaned up and had brushes replaced.

x2. Bout to do one on my Malibu

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I would rethink blasting the housing for the windings. The insulation on the windings is very thin and easily worn away causing shorts between the coils. It’s also very hard to get all the blasting media out, if nay falls off inside the case it really makes short work of the new bearings and brushes. Normally I just use a wire wheel on the end of a die grinder to clean this before painting.

I actually did think about that and just focused on the case itself and avoided everything else as much as possible. I'm pretty anal about cleanliness after I blast too :lol:

I like to use soda on things like this because it cleans up much easier. Great point to mention though!

 

[thedoctorisin]

Nice, I've got two alts that both squeak. I'm going to try and rebuild one now.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I'm in the process of doing this myself as well. Although I'm working with a CS130D which is a bit more involved than the older stuff being that the rectifier is soldered to the stator leads. Makes it a bit harder to pull things apart.

I'm powder coating the housing black to match the rest of the engine and then I'm going to upgrade from the stock 105A output to 220A.

http://www.aspwholesale.com/ has pretty decent prices on their kits.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I'm in the process of doing this myself as well. Although I'm working with a CS130D which is a bit more involved than the older stuff being that the rectifier is soldered to the stator leads. Makes it a bit harder to pull things apart.

I'm powder coating the housing black to match the rest of the engine and then I'm going to upgrade from the stock 105A output to 220A.

http://www.aspwholesale.com/ has pretty decent prices on their kits.

I'd like to upgrade mine to higher output as well since it's only 63A. I haven't played with the CS130D and really don't know what's involved in swapping over to that style. Did you have to do anything out of the ordinary to make that work with Olds alt brackets?

The color I'm planning on using on mine is this: http://www.powderbuythepound.com/SOLAR_ ... TRANS.html
It's a top coat meant to be sprayed over chrome, polished aluminum or a chrome powder base. I want to do my water neck, valve covers, ps reservoir, water pump and maybe a few other parts to make the detail really stand out. I also ordered the bonded black chrome and ultimate chrome.

I'm no pro at powder coating yet, but for a home jobber I don't do terrible work. Here's some brackets that I recently finished. These were done in matte black and top coated with this http://www.powderbuythepound.com/CRYSTA ... CLEAR.html

The pics really don't even show how glossy everything came out.