Alternator Replacement or Rebuild?

Thanks for this! Led me down the path of replacing the brushes as the first step. It's cheap enough and a good learning experience. If that doesn't work, I'll get the rest of the alternator rebuilt by a local shop.

I took off the belt and spun the alternator, it has zero resistance so looks like that is all good. Hoping the brushes do the trick.

 

Helpful tip: The screws on the back of the alternator are _not_ phillips. They're JIS, the japanese version. If you're not careful, a regular phillips screwdriver will strip them happily.

 

I love it, another top notch quality alternator salvaged from the garbage or from being turned in as a core and sent to Timbuktu to be 'rebuilt' (brushes replaced and diode swapped and a paint job, laaaaame
never have I seen a reman from a parts store that had the bearings replaced)
So good on you man

 

The JIS screwdrivers should be here the same day as the part. I definitely don't want to strip those out.

 

Ask me how I learned it

You're one step ahead in this game. Noice. I like your style

 

Just rebuild it all the parts for mine were available local at a mom and pop shop for less than 40 bucks

Its just bolts and screws nothing like 2nd gens the older the toyota the better

 

How we all learned for the most!!

 

What all parts did you replace?

I replaced the rectifier on another car and the diodes blew after 40k miles, so it's the quality of parts I'm worried about. Brushes are pretty simple, not much can go wrong, but diodes in the rectifier could be cheap crap.

 

@UKR_TACO

Here are the two checks you should probably start with doing.

 

I replaced the brushes and bearings on my tacoma

On my camry it was 27 for a voltage reg and brushes

On my buddies 4 runner it was like 60/70 bucks for every part in the alt

 

Solid find on the rectifier testing... I'm so used to looking stuff up in actual FSM book form so I just reference my Cruisers FSMs for a rough idea on specs like that stuff.
Too hard to navigate those digital FSMs... Unless someone has a secret easy to use digital FSM they can share, or maybe there is an easier secret way to look stuff up in it that I'm not aware of yet?

 

This

 

All of the ones I've come across seem to have start off as a pdf with internal links, and then someone trying to helpful blew them up into a bunch of different pdfs and broke all the links, then renamed them with some funky code. They also threw away a bunch of stuff - one of them is missing all of the info for the 3RZ.

The one I have for my other truck is just a folder full of pdfs with working links and is nicely organized. Its much easier to use.

 

An alternator with bad bearings in it will definitely make a bad whine. Few years ago before I knew anything about anything, I thought it was a good idea for me to replace my alternator because my battery died. So I got rid of my OEM alternator without having it tested, bought a reman, off brand alternator and popped it in for a few years. Worked fine until I started having this AWFUL whine that I absolutely could not figure out where it was coming from. Hung out with a buddy one day who took me up to his friends shop, had his friend listen around with a stethoscope, sure enough it was my alternator. Had a bad bearing inside of it. I even listened through the stethoscope and could hear it loud and clear.

edit: the whine would be very noticeable as i would accelerate

To the OP:
My piece of advice would be to check local yards first to see if there are any vehicles around and go from there. I was lucky enough to check a local yard where I used to live, went & pulled the alternator, paid like $17 bucks for it, core charge was $3, went and had it tested and it has worked PERFECTLY ever since. You have different options, sure, but if I had to do it all over again I'd definitely do it the same way I did before. Just my .02

 

Yeah I don't understand a whole lot of what you're saying but I get the gist of it.

Depending on how long I think I'm keeping this taco I may just have to get a book form FSM. Well prolly not lol, just hunt specs or steps down as needed I guess
If i can make myself fall in love with the taco, like the Cruisers did to me on their own, without me convincing myself to love them, then I'll get the book form
I really wish we had Hilux here, all rebuildable and all serviceable.
My bad!

 

I think our trucks are pretty rebuildable

 

yes, what I thought was a PS pump issue was actualy the alternator.

 

Was it the bearings? Or was it something you just let it be since it wasn't the PS pump?

 

The 96 FSM I downloaded several years ago was just one long pdf with searchable words. I'm not sure if the link still works in the sticky thread.

There is free software that will join PDF files together into one long file if someone wants to do that. You can sort all the pieces into proper order then output the new file.

PDFsam is one.
https://pdfsam.org/

 

Give me the hard copy I can find what I need much faster if I need to refer to it again just as easy