A lost art: Alternator repair

[tc1959]

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.

X2 on that

 

[FE3X CLONE]

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?

I'm using a SBC serpentine setup which is why I'm running the CS130D.
I believe the biggest difference with the CS130/D is that the stator leads are soldered to the rectifier. I believe the older alternators have them bolted to the rectifier.
So you either try to desolder the leads or you cut the rectifier tangs off.

Hopefully you have better luck with all of the chrome powder coat than I did. Since your top coating it you should be fine. I found that the chrome powder looks great right out of the oven but if you don't top coat it with something, it will start to dull pretty quickly and the finish doesn't hold up to gasoline or other solvents at all. Of course if you tried top coating it with a gloss clear it would dull the chrome look as well. 🙁
I stripped every piece I had powder coated with the chrome powder (intake, valve covers, etc.) and repowder coated them with satin black.

 

[G-Body_Vet]

I'm using a SBC serpentine setup which is why I'm running the CS130D.
I believe the biggest difference with the CS130/D is that the stator leads are soldered to the rectifier. I believe the older alternators have them bolted to the rectifier.

Mine were bolted to the rectifier. Did you consider the AD244 at all? From what I understand they're a better design, internal fan, better layout with the rectifier, better cooling, etc. That may kill the sbc serpentine set-up though. I haven't really researched enough to know much about them yet. On the other hand we're looking at 140+amps compared to 63 thru 100 (depending on which older model I could get). I'm not planning to run a big stereo or anything like that but I'd like to add a modern alternator if possible :wink:

 

[cashmoneyspeed]

Great topic. I too always rebuild my own alternators for whatever the issue is. Luckily there is a starter/alternator repair shop close by where i can get parts at a great price.

Here's my stock alternator from my 307 that i rebuilt and powdercoated right before the engine blew. So, now i'm using it on my Chevy 305. I'd love to get a chrome alternator since mine doesn't match anything else under the hood, but at least i know it's solid as a rock and won't give me any problems for a long time. I'm a bit addicted to powdercoating things too. 😀

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I'm using a SBC serpentine setup which is why I'm running the CS130D.
I believe the biggest difference with the CS130/D is that the stator leads are soldered to the rectifier. I believe the older alternators have them bolted to the rectifier.

Mine were bolted to the rectifier. Did you consider the AD244 at all? From what I understand they're a better design, internal fan, better layout with the rectifier, better cooling, etc. That may kill the sbc serpentine set-up though. I haven't really researched enough to know much about them yet. On the other hand we're looking at 140+amps compared to 63 thru 100 (depending on which older model I could get). I'm not planning to run a big stereo or anything like that but I'd like to add a modern alternator if possible :wink:

I ended up going with a CS144 140A alternator. I had a newly rebuilt one that I had bought a while back and decided to pull it apart to see if was any easier to work on.
Turns out it was made to actually be serviced somewhat easily. Stator bolts to the rectifier,etc. After a little grinding on the case and using an a adapter bracket it slid right into place. However it does sit pretty high and could interfere with a stock hood?