I love stories like that...Too often we're made to toss out things that arr
fixable... Whole vehicles soon, I'd predict.. Like Japan?...JDM Subie
motors?

On Jan 13, 2017 8:57 AM, "Alistair Bell" <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:

Dennis is going to love this :-)

Alternator has been whistling the last week or so, getting louder every
day. I knew what was wrong.
Confirmed it yesterday, felt the play in the pulley (belt off).

This alternator owes me nothing. It's the one that came on the 92 Jetta
1800 I4 I put in my 82 westy back in 94. I've already replaced the brushes
twice and the bearings once.

I have a parts alternator in bits and pieces in the barn. I had cleaned up
the slip rings on the lathe and I figured the rotor was good enough as a
back up.

Yesterday at lunch I went to the local Napa and bought replacement (2)
bearings. They were no name bearings. Oh well, hoping they will last for as
long as it takes me to get a spare alt together.
I pulled the whistling alt from the van. Got it apart and and confirmed
pulley end bearing shot.
The the bores in the frame where the bearings sit were tight, no wallowing.
The bearings were tight on the shaft. So it was just the bearing itself
that had failed, worn out.

I put the new bearings on the rotor that I had cleaned up ( btw, slip ring
diameter was about 26.5mm). All went back together easily with only one "oh
darn it" moment when I dropped the woodruff key.

And back in van and back in service.

Total cost was 26 bucks for the bearings, plus one and a half hours of my
time.

( noticed my brushes were close to wear limit. I think I might try
soldering new brushes as this particular reg is an adjustable one.)

And after I had put it all back in van, and was mulling it all over,
realized I should have pried up the rubber seals on the cheap bearings and
given them some extra grease, or at least check if there was enough grease
in them.

Alistair