If your dipstick is blowing off, this could also imply your getting excessive blowby due to bad compression. If I were you would perform a compresion test asap.

 

Let me say another thing about the ALternator, bolts and such. I broke 3 ALternator brackets, bolts missing on the bracket, All within a 6 month period recently... ALL this happened when my Oil pump balance shaft was out of sinc 180 degrees. the vibrations were bad at 4K RPM. this happened when I had cams put in, and the timing belt replaced. Once I had the balance shaft in the proper position, I never had another issue with an alternator till now.

 

I had the same problem i was driveing on the highway with the barke light and batt. light on i didnt know what was going on. Then i knew it was the alternator. I order a new one when i pulled out the old one it was missing all the bolt the hold it toghther. I put some red locktie on it and i check it once a month.

 

I'm at 55k w/a boom boom stereo. So far so good. I'll definitely keep an eye on it though. I have one more thing to help me out though, a farad cap with the voltage meter on it. I actually used this to find a bad ground once as it was showing about 6v getting to the trunk. So I guess if I have the engine running and check that meter and it's low, I'll know it's going bad...

 

When on my Michigan trip, the light would come on, and would "dead-stick" off to the shoulder, not enough power to keep it running, I would gently push in the gas, and get slight jerking, but NO power to move. I did push on my "flashers" and coast in the shoulder. once I put my flashers on, the battery/brake lights went OFF, and the car ran the rest of the way, NORMALLY!!?? That was odd. On the return trip, the car did the same thing, but the "flashers" didn't do anything, I pulled over and checked the wiring to the alternator, and the red rubber boot was crumbling in my hand, it was Vaproized. this intermittent deal is odd for sure. They are 380ish new?? I got one for 215 from my dealership, because they like me.

 

My alternator just went down for the count, It didn't even give me any warning......except for the fact that my radio was going in and out. Nothing else even lit up. Anyone know where to get a new one?

 

Try the dealership, or steal one off from another member's car =)


It might actually be possible to rebuild these alternators...anyone know where you can buy new brushes?