Alternator blues.

[rags]

They were crap, but they were roundbacks, seldom remanufactured properly.

i did the same for an alternator for my '65. bought the cheapest AZ valu-craft available. it was put together with all used o.e parts that were cleaned and painted. better with used o.e. than new made in china i figured. $35 and worked great. you couldn't pay me to use napa electronics.

 

[carguy300]

Used to be a good parts supplier but now, bout like anything else.....

 

[volksworld]

got both bearings for my roundback at NAPA...as well as one + diode...free rental pully puller came from autozone...think they had it listed as a P/S puller...upper hose Gates from NAPA, lower Continental from Autozone...both halves of the alternator have casting dates on them(on little clockfaces), many rebuilds wind up with 2 different year pieces or have been blasted so much they dates are worn away...so matched halves with the right dates are important to the crazy people with the big bucks cars and are valuable cores to some people so i wouldnt necessarily hand in one of those those for a mis matched Duralast

 

[Gerald Morris]

i did the same for an alternator for my '65. bought the cheapest AZ valu-craft available. it was put together with all used o.e parts that were cleaned and painted. better with used o.e. than new made in china i figured. $35 and worked great. you couldn't pay me to use napa electronics.

Big 10-4 there Good Buddy! These PowerMasterbator alternators, while ostensibly "Made in the USA" don't use decent metal in their bearings. I strongly suspect THOSE come from bottom shelf pot-metal here, or across the Yellow Ocean. They do well enough for producing the desired current for the price with one of FuryGT's regulators* supplying field current, so I run them. Given a little of that RARE commodity in my barrio, TIME, I could cop a heavy current rebuild kit, choose either a roundback or squareback case, and build one RIGHT. I have all the tools I need for that level of work here. But with Little Gobbler #3 on the Scene now, that Time commodity runs VERY SHORT.

*I have one from him, another from Tuff Stuff which runs a ckt board very like his, and a couple more solid state regulators, and even a couple junk yard thermo-electric ones. All work, but some do better than others.

 

[Gerald Morris]

got both bearings for my roundback at NAPA...as well as one + diode...free rental pully puller came from autozone...think they had it listed as a P/S puller...upper hose Gates from NAPA, lower Continental from Autozone

Da Zone does better at honoring their Warranty, which is their sole commendable quality aside from ubiquity. I hunt for NOS stuff whenever possible for my rides now, and do fairly well at that. Often, I pay no more for NOS parts than current COTS ware!

 

[rags]

I strongly suspect THOSE come from bottom shelf pot-metal here, or across the Yellow Ocean.

no doubt. i figured they'd last about ten minutes but are in the car to this day. they're easy enough to replace with good generic units if needed. give the time to your young one. cars are forever but childhood is over in a moment. best of health and happiness to you.

 

[carguy300]

Just picked up my alternator from the shop. Total rebuild with a year warranty for $100 bill. Looks good I think. Soon to be installed.

 

[Gerald Morris]

Looks decent. Check how well the charging stud is done. A LOT of the quality shows with that. Charging studs are major failure points, esp on roundbacks.