Fired the truck up to drive home from work Thursday and the battery light came on. Checked the belt, but it was still there. Torque (android app) says it's making 11.5v, so I figure the alt is probly bad. I was tempted to see if I could make it home, but it's a 25 min drive and I didn't want to get stranded by the side of the road.

While waiting for my wife, I got on the phone to source a replacement/ repair. Advance wanted $255 for a rebuilt alt. I called around for a used alt and found on 45 mins north of me for $100. I called a local Starter / Alternator Repair Shop (EC Auto Electric Supply) and they said $95 to rebuild it, they could have it ready the same day. They also had a new starter for $143. However the new starter was made by World Power Source, which sounds like a questionable Chinese company, so I went for the rebuild.

I got up the next day, used the wife's truck to get to my Disco and pull the alt (took about 10 minutes), and had it to the shop by 9 am. They called at 10:30 to tell me it was done. I got back up there around 2 pm and was surprised to see they did a thorough job. I figured they would just patch it up, but they fully disassembled, cleaned, and repainted it as well as 'rebuilding' it.

My point is - many folks don't know about these shops that will repair starters and alternators, but I've dealt with two over the years and both shops have been a great deal. I was a little surprised they didn't even flinch when I said "Land Rover", but I guess these alts are very similar to a US alt so the parts are common.

Finally, when I was reinstalling it, it was an extremely tight fit. I realized there's an expandable sleeve that presses in against the alt when you tighten the bolts. The sleeves were stuck, so I tried to use a set of vice grips to push them back out a bit for the reinstall. They didn't budge, so I clamped with the vice grips, then tapped them gently with a ball peen hammer and they slipped right out. The alternator dropped right in after that.

 

I'm with ya on the rebuild shops. There was one on the south side of Atlanta that was fantastic. Full rebuilds were $39+ parts. Amazing job.

 

I agree.

Alternatively, one can also buy the parts on the internet from starter and alternator supply sites and rebuild the alternator yourself. That's what I did. Parts were about $40 or so and easy to do if ya have the tools. I have a lathe which I used to true up the commutator, but a guy could chuck it on a drill press and use a file too. I also bought a new pulley because the one on mine had sharp ridges which leads to slippage. The L/R alternators are particularly easy to rebuild because the whole brush assembly comes out the rear in one piece as I recall. But for $95, it was probably money well spent to have a shop do it. I didn't paint mine. They weren't painted from the factory and I didn't want to cover up the factory sticker. If ya want to do it 'right' a guy would glass bead the housing and leave it natural. But that level of detail is getting down to the minutia.

Interestingly, once I had mine rebuilt, I took it too an alternator shop to get it thoroughly tested and the owner there hooked it up wrong! I stood by the machine and watched the whole thing. There was smoke coming out of it which made me freak out, and he immediately unhooked it. He admitted he goofed and didn't try to hide anything, which I appreciated his honesty. He took it apart and didn't find anything wrong and told me he'd rebuild it for free if it crapped out, but it's been good every since (5 yrs ago). So, not like these alternator shops get it right all the time.

Main reason I rebuilt mine rather than buy an Autozone unit is I've had a few 'new' and 'rebuilt' alternators and starters which didn't last worth a crap. Sure they replace them for 'free' but what good is that if yer out in the middle of nowhere or have to go through the labor to remove. Not too difficult on a Disco, but try taking one out of a VW TDI with A/C in the cold!