Electrical puzzler...

Time to replace the brushes, they look worse ten the set that was on my last KG I shipped to the U.K. Last year.that wire from the armature should be attached to the other side winding. When spinning you could have intermittent contact contributing to the overall problem. I have a Motorola from a 73 VW Thing that is a 65 amp, You just pay shipping and it's yours.
 
I had an alternator problem that drove me crazy with my 95 GMC truck. I tried 3 different alternators
and it turned out to be an intermittent connection on the connector that plugs into the side to make it charge.
New pigtail soldered in - problem solved.
 
Loves302Chevy said:
and it turned out to be an intermittent connection on the connector that plugs into the side to make it charge.
Click to expand...
Leaving no stone unturned, I'll check that as well. I think I soldered mine, but I'll double check. Then again... when the current was low, I should have seen a voltage drop indicating a bad connection, no?

Richard, brushes look beaten up... what do you think of slip rings? Do they look ok or is that oxydation? Should I try sanding that clean?

Oooh. And offer for an Alt?! Thanks. I might take you up on that one !

I wanted to drive my KG to work tomorrow. It looks like I have a choice. Install the used know-to-be-good German unit. Or try and clean up the slip rings and brushes. Hmmm. Not much of a choice, is it? Alt swap it is ...let's hope I get my 36mm socket back today ! (I leant it too little buddy to tap in his C3's brake calipers seals)
 
Right. I'm calling it a night. I swapped over the used alt with the understanding it worked. The chore wasn't very difficult. But... the idiot light doesn't come on at all now. The alt has a good ground and when you ground the D+ wire on the case, the idiot light shines brightly.

Hmmmmm. What am I missing?
 
Just to be sure I swapped back my alt, the idiot light works fine.

So we are at a fork in the road. I'm convinced that the problem is within the alt assembly. The rest of the car's wiring is fine.

We can replace the brushes and regulator on the Brazilian alt. Would that fix the problem, ya think?

We can replace the voltage regulator on the German one. Would that fix the problem? (And we're not sure the rest works on that alt)

Or, F! it replace the whole damn thing.

Thoughts?
 
Ira, if you swapped back the first alt and it works fine why not take care of the brushes and be done, call it a victory!
 
Swapped back in the way of resting it grounded on the engine block... but it is easy enough to fully reinstall.
 
Tough call. Every time you touch another part, there is the chance that you introduce another problem.
Or, unknowingly fix the problem you had. That is until it returns. Then you pull the rest of your hair out.

If you have the extra room, put in a CS-144 alternator. They are damn near bulletproof.
And put out waaaay more amps at idle. I believe the smallest one is 140 amps.
 
The rest of the story.

I decided that since I'd rather trust vintage German over Brazilian; since it was installed; and replacing the brushes and regulator was easy (and the component was a beefy-looking German unit) I stuck with the vintage. And I'm glad I did. The cold idle is much better. I did several drives. The problem seems fixed. Crappy $300 Brazilian unit !!!! A Chinese unit would have been $99. I wonder what that would have been worth ?
 
most import parts from china, and india , that I've tried,
were a total waste of time and effort to instal,
as far as from mexico and brazil, wildly varying results
 
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