You also need to make sure your battery is fully charged. A dead or low battery can put enough of a strain on a new/rebuilt alternator to kill it.

 

Yes sir.


I find this statement a bit odd. The battery had enough power to turn the starter over without any difficulty, but even if the battery was low, an alternator by design is meant to charge it. Im not trying to be combative here, I just simply dont understand the logic.

 

Check belt routing, its easier to screw up than you think.

 

here is an odd one...

Go out to move the truck, and the damn Alternator sprang to life. I had it on a a trickle charger on and off the last couple days. Perhaps Chris-Bob has a point. Im gonna drive it to work tomorrow and see how it goes.

Damn I hope this is just some anomaly, I dont feel like chasing electrical gremlins.. Knock on wood.

 

I had seen a writeup a while back regarding repairing the Alternator instead of exchanging it. If I remember corerectly, it discussed replacing brushes that are considered a normal wear item and not a catastrophic failure.

Anyone familar with the subject?

 

You are correct that an alternator is designed to recharge a 'slightly' discharged battery. The vehicle runs on alternator output and the battery helps to regulate the voltage. When you jump start a car with a dead battery, you run the risk of frying the alternator. It was not designed for an immediate load such as a fully drained battery and the vehicle power demands. I'm not saying that is your problem, it was more of a statement/advice so you can avoid having that dilemma in the future.

Could you have a problem in the instrument cluster causing your intermittent tach problems?

 

I have not looked into it with the LR alternator, but I have replaced brushes on countless starters and alternators to breath life back into them. It does work if the only problem is the brushes.(usually is the only problem)

 

Well, I am about to start an exploratory on the LR alternator myself.

My 97 suddenly had a dead tach. I picked up an alternator from the local recycler. Swapped alternators, no change in problem. During removal, the old alternator did not want to allow me to unblot one of the leads and the case cracked slightly (plastic part). I opted to keep my old one since the core charge was only 10 bucks. So it will undergo evaluation soon.

I was hoping to get the instrument cluster from our new friend that is parting out his beloved 98 50th Anniversary DI with 198K on it, but I haven't heard from him lately. ShawdowMerchant, where are you?

I will jump on the wiring asoociated with the TACH and other parts when I get thru with my current exploration of the rear driveshaft to rear differential as I am having to section the 3 bolt flange to replace the whole setup with a 98 DI rear D/S that I picked up locally.

My efforts ran into a roadblock when I was rushed to the hospital last Wednesday with my own vital fluids problem. I spent Wedneday thru Saturday evening being probbed internally and monitored for a variety of things, then infused with large amounts of antibiotics and painkillers until I was deemed ok to release on Saaturday night.

Big BBQ in the Papa Bear Cave out back with a fireworks extravaganza Sunday, a day or two of taking it easy, now I am back to the driveshaft rehab. Looks like I better plan on making new brake lines for the entore underneath pretty soon as well.

I figure about another month I will catch up with 15 years of decay and have a decent rig eventually. Just got to keep others out from behind the driver's seat.

 

Another thing I heard about from my local FPLRG was that one membver driving a 96 DI had borrowed another member's alternator since he keep having a dead battery.

He resorted to an old test that many people used to do. He lifted the Positive Battery cable while the car was running to determine if the problem was the alternator or a bad battery. Thinking that if it was a bad alternator, the engine would die without the battery being hooked up.

The end result was damage to the alternator interrupting the connection to the battery while the alternator was providing an output. In the old days, lots of people employed this method of testing. With today's sensitive systems, it is a major NO-NO.

 

Funny thing, it most definitely was not the cluster, the one I replaced tested bad, and the one on the car now was definitely not charging for a period of time after install, and then putting the battery on a 2 amp trickle charge for a few hours it magically sprang back to life.

Had the battery tested and its fine.

Odd, two days in and no problems yet. But if this one fails again I will definitely go with a new one.

Any suggestions on a manufacturer are welcome.
Thanks for all the input gentlemen