Alternator disassembly

The good news is that I didn't get stuck in any mud, and my truck is now coated in it.
The bad news is that I'm still a dumb ass and went through some puddles a little too fast and pissed off the alternator.



The battery indicator light is on and isn't turning off, which means there is a electric potential difference between the battery and the alternator (I've searched through the forums a bit). I'll be going to autozone today at lunch to have them do whatever free test they do. When that test inevitably says that my alternator is toast, I'm going to take it apart and clean it. I've read that people have done this before, but haven't found any diagrams or instructions. Can someone direct me?

I also realized that one of my fender walls is torn. Anyone know where I can get a replacement? I imagine that would have prevented this much mud from getting on everything.

 

Check local junk yards for the wheel well.Ebay has stuff sometimes as well. And the alternator ha kinda a take apart and hope you can put it back together kinda thing. maybe take pictures as you do it so you can look back and put it back together.. Good luck!

 

UPDATE: The car died in the parking lot at work. It was running all right while I was looking at it with a buddy, when I noticed that it was at 0 rpms. I thought that was kind of weird, so I reved it a few times and the needle didn't move. I flipped the lights on real quick and the whole rig shut off. I'm going to check the connections between the alternator and the battery and try to get over to autozone or napa and get her tested. Is there anything else I should be checking for?

 

ANOTHER UPDATE: I re-seated the plug leading into the alternator which seemingly had no effect. I went to get a jump from a coworker and found out that the pads on my battery are mismarked, so I crossed the terminals. It sparked like a mofo, but it doesn't look like any fuses are blown. Anyway, I was driving over to autozone and noticed that the indicator light went out. I got it checked anyway and it failed some voltage regulation test. I think I picked the sketchiest autozone in phoenix, so I'll check with a normal one on my way home, but I think I fixed the problem.

 

I had a similar problem. I put a new battery in it and a few days later it died so i reasoned it was the alternator. I did the caddy alternator swap and so far its working great. Could be an option for you, its cheaper than stock tacoma alternator and puts out almost twice the amps.

 

I did the same thing once. Take the alternator off and it is easily serviceable. The back brush shield comes off and exposes the brushes. My brushes had dirt in them, inhibiting them from moving against the rotor. I cleaned them off and it's been a good 15,000 miles since with no issues.

 

I'm just nervous about working with belts. Do I need to worry about the tension or anything? Is there a guide you followed?

 

I was worried about it to. I did it by hand and attempted to make them as tight as the other belts. Probably not the best way to do it, but its worked fine for a month or so.

 

I'm currently pulling this sucker out. I've got the belt off and all of the bolts out.

 

Got it out. Holy $hit it's muddy. I'm in the process of taking it apart. I'm going to blast everything with electronic cleaner (whatever I used to clean the MAF sensor a few months ago).

 

if anyone is still awake....
Do I have to remove the pulley to get at the inside? I can't seem to pull it apart and I don't want to remove EVERY screw if I dont have to...

 

looks that way

 

Totally fixed it. I pulled off the back casing (taking the pulley off was wayyyy too much of a PITA, so I didn't do it), and found that there's a computer chip and sensor in the back (which I'm guessing is the voltage regulator). Both of them were covered in mud, so I cleaned it off and blasted it with CRC electronic cleaner, and it passed inspection at autozone with flying colors!

I'll post pictures later when i'm not at work.

 

Okay, so I found out that my alternator was failing some kind of voltage regulation fault. Rather than dropping some money on a new one, I opted to try and fix the old one.

Disclaimer: I'm not a mechanic. Do this at your own risk, I'm not responsible if you break something. Results may vary, one entry per household.

Required Materials:
1. 10mm,14mm,12mm sockets (I think)
2. Mallet or hammer
3. CRC electronics cleaner
4. WD-40 (if the bolts are being stubborn)
5. Beer


Take it out. Unplug the cable in the back as well as the ground cable. Next you'll need to remove the bottom two bolts (I believe they're called the tension bolt and locking bolt) to remove the belt. After that, remove the pivot bolt at the top and pull the alternator out. If you have a hard time getting out like I did, I found that wiggling it a bunch and hitting it with a mallet helps.



Once you have it out, remove the back plate. There are hex bolts around the outside that need to be removed in order to do this. You'll also need to remove the grounding nut and pull off that black bit sticking out.



Remove the sensor and computer chip that are circled in the picture below. There are two screws holding each in.

The sensor communicates with the chip via the screw mounts, so start by cleaning these. To be safe, I also blasted the two black bits in the sensor with CRC electronics cleaner. Basically, get everything as clean as possible without being too rough on anything.

When you're done, reassemble the alternator, and head over to autozone. They'll put it into a machine and test it for you (for free!!). That way you don't have to remove it again if cleaning it doesn't do the trick, and you can just buy a new one right there (they're $124 ish). After that, just take it home and reinstall it.

And that sums up my first write up. I hope this helps someone, because I couldn't find anything like this to help me.

 

great write up, 2 weeks to late for me though. I replaced mine right before christmas