Rebuilding an alternator

[EJX_Michael]

Hey,

So it turns out my altenator is taking a crap on me, not that im suprised since its 16 years old...

I had it tested, and at idle its putting out 12.83 volts and less than 30 amps. also if I run the radio for more than 10 min. with the car off, it doesn't want to start.

Is it possible for me to rebuild it myself? Is it even worth the effort?

Or should I just go with an autozone rebuild for 100 bucks?

Also, im seeing a bunch of altenators advertised as new on ebay, are they any good? Could someone suggest one of the many different ones being sold?

Thanks...

And I DID search, so don't whine about that...

[Night Wolf]

if you know what your doing its better than an expensive rebuilt

you do the starter that way too

[EJX_Michael]

if you know what your doing its better than an expensive rebuilt

you do the starter that way too

Is it hard? something I could do if I read up about it? What all would I need? Any special tools?

[Night Wolf]

well you need to solder off some spots to completely remove every thing inside & clean it up


but most people just replace the brush inside & the other part I cant remember.

[EJX_Michael]

well you need to solder off some spots to completely remove every thing inside & clean it up


but most people just replace the brush inside

Well if its not much more than some soldering and replacing things, I think I could handle that! What about the berrings?

[C91BLX7]

Fuckin pain in the ass.

[EJX_Michael]

Fuckin pain in the ass.

ah... well which ones on ebay are good? any ideas?

[Joshy]

Well if its not much more than some soldering and replacing things, I think I could handle that! What about the berrings?

are you SURE you need to replace the bearings? are they broken?

you can tell if they are. it doesn't sound good! - a squeaky grindy noise.

if your voltage is fluctuating irregularly, and the connections are indeed FIRMLY attached, take the alternator out and inspect:

• brush assembly
• regulator/diode chip and heatsinc

http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showpost...3&postcount=21

the regulator/diode will give you fluctuating voltage and may cause your battery light to come on intermittently while the car is at low RPM.

worn brushes also yield low voltage readings, but they are usually constant.

doesn't hurt to replace both parts if you've got the alternator out.

[TypeG]

here's some info on the brushes only:
http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=55413
later.

[EJX_Michael]

are you SURE you need to replace the bearings? are they broken?

you can tell if they are. it doesn't sound good! - a squeaky grindy noise.

if your voltage is fluctuating irregularly, and the connections are indeed FIRMLY attached, take the alternator out and inspect:

• brush assembly
• regulator/diode chip and heatsinc

http://www.cb7tuner.com/vbb/showpost...3&postcount=21

the regulator/diode will give you fluctuating voltage and may cause your battery light to come on intermittently while the car is at low RPM.

worn brushes also yield low voltage readings, but they are usually constant.

doesn't hurt to replace both parts if you've got the alternator out.

Ill whip out the DMM tomorrow and give er a test... I just know its got low volts and amps at idle...

Thanks for the responses so far...

[Losiracer2]

Yeah I had to contemplate this exact same idea....rebuild or buy rebuilt lol. I ended up just buying a prelude VTEC rebuilt Alt. from Autozone. Its got more amperage, 95 vs 80 and is the exact same dimensions. Everything down to the voltage regulator is the same layout. Its about 5 bucks more, but I think it was worth it for the extra 15amps of power. Its got a lifetime warranty, so that's always good.

The only thing you'd need to do is swap your accord pulley w/ the prelude one it comes w/ otherwise you'll be shredding belts. I had the guy behind the counter do it for me, since they've got an electric impact handy. I've had mine in since 4am on a sunday night and all's been great! lol, actually had to do it in the Autozone parking lot since my car was on the verge of dying.

Charges fine w/ the AC on full, about 12.6v and w/o it on its at like 14.5v so all is well finally.

But if you are to rebuild, the voltage regulator is about 110 bucks and the brushes, who knows....I priced these pieces out before I bought the reman'd Prelude VTEC alt. and for the cost of the voltage reg. you have an entire alt. So yeah...i opted for that. my total for the alt. came to 118 and change.

[EJX_Michael]

Yeah I had to contemplate this exact same idea....rebuild or buy rebuilt lol. I ended up just buying a prelude VTEC rebuilt Alt. from Autozone. Its got more amperage, 95 vs 80 and is the exact same dimensions. Everything down to the voltage regulator is the same layout. Its about 5 bucks more, but I think it was worth it for the extra 15amps of power. Its got a lifetime warranty, so that's always good.

The only thing you'd need to do is swap your accord pulley w/ the prelude one it comes w/ otherwise you'll be shredding belts. I had the guy behind the counter do it for me, since they've got an electric impact handy. I've had mine in since 4am on a sunday night and all's been great! lol, actually had to do it in the Autozone parking lot since my car was on the verge of dying.

Charges fine w/ the AC on full, about 12.6v and w/o it on its at like 14.5v so all is well finally.

But if you are to rebuild, the voltage regulator is about 110 bucks and the brushes, who knows....I priced these pieces out before I bought the reman'd Prelude VTEC alt. and for the cost of the voltage reg. you have an entire alt. So yeah...i opted for that. my total for the alt. came to 118 and change.

Good idea! but will they still take the accord alt for a core?

[Losiracer2]

Good idea! but will they still take the accord alt for a core?

yeah they did for mine. The core is 52 bucks if you don't have one but I just showed them mine and they swapped it out w/o any issues. Just tell them you want to swap pulley's. If they don't let you do that, take the pulley off at home and then go to another autozone and buy the Prelude one and swap the pulleys yourself. I'm not sure if you need to include the pulley for the core or not but mine had it on there since at the time I didn't realize that I needed to retain the accord pulley. I just gave them a junked F22 alternator I had from my donor car as the core. It had bad brushes and a cracked voltage regulator, they still took it.

Another thing I noticed was where the two alternators were remanufactured. At first I got an Accord one, since I really didn't think it would matter that much, but after driving on it for only 1 day, it started acting up, intermittently charging my batt. until it didn't do it and my car literally was dying while driving. My ABS light came on, my HIDs were flickering, Auto trans was slipping like crazy...weird shit was happening.

The Accord reman one is made in Mexico. The prelude reman one is made in Malaysia and has an ND symbol on the back of the alt. cover. Just for comparison purposes, my stock OEM Accord one w/ 191k on it had the same ND insignia on the back of it. So I think the prelude VTEC one is of superior quality, they prob. use OEM parts, all the pieces, from what I could see when I was comparing the Accord and Prelude alts. were better on the prelude. Prob. due to it being a higher amperage, they need to use better parts. But in the end, def. get the prelude one, your car will run better, at least that's the case for my H22 accord.

[EJX_Michael]

yeah they did for mine. The core is 52 bucks if you don't have one but I just showed them mine and they swapped it out w/o any issues. Just tell them you want to swap pulley's. If they don't let you do that, take the pulley off at home and then go to another autozone and buy the Prelude one and swap the pulleys yourself. I'm not sure if you need to include the pulley for the core or not but mine had it on there since at the time I didn't realize that I needed to retain the accord pulley. I just gave them a junked F22 alternator I had from my donor car as the core. It had bad brushes and a cracked voltage regulator, they still took it.

Another thing I noticed was where the two alternators were remanufactured. At first I got an Accord one, since I really didn't think it would matter that much, but after driving on it for only 1 day, it started acting up, intermittently charging my batt. until it didn't do it and my car literally was dying while driving. My ABS light came on, my HIDs were flickering, Auto trans was slipping like crazy...weird shit was happening.

The Accord reman one is made in Mexico. The prelude reman one is made in Malaysia and has an ND symbol on the back of the alt. cover. Just for comparison purposes, my stock OEM Accord one w/ 191k on it had the same ND insignia on the back of it. So I think the prelude VTEC one is of superior quality, they prob. use OEM parts, all the pieces, from what I could see when I was comparing the Accord and Prelude alts. were better on the prelude. Prob. due to it being a higher amperage, they need to use better parts. But in the end, def. get the prelude one, your car will run better, at least that's the case for my H22 accord.

Will do once i get some cash.

Thanks fer the help!