SolidDigital

I just pulled out my alternator brushes and took a few pics. I'm about to go pick up new brushes I ordered from toyota.

Hopefully that'll take care of the charging problems.. it did ok except under a load of even my fan or lights, with the truck idleing you could watch the amps drop by 0.1's a few times every 30 seconds.
Sorry about the bad pics, but you can still see how the brushes are worn.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...Picture154.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...Picture153.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...Picture152.jpg

mt_goat

It looks like they still have some length to them to me. As long as they still have an exposed lenght of 1.5mm (.059") they are within specs of the FSM.

DudeBud

^^ indeed....what you should do is put it back together and have it tested somewhere.

SolidDigital

well I sure hope they were too short cause I've already run the new ones in there haha.. the amps still slowly drop, but not near as fast with the headlights on, fan on med hi, radio blasting, and 50 watt x2 driving lights @ idle. 22 bucks later:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...Picture158.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b4...Picture155.jpg

mt_goat

Might also check your main grounding points, maybe they are getting rusty.

BTW your photography skills are improving a lot.

SolidDigital

I'm gonna check the grounds today, hopefully I can find em all.

mt_goat

Or better yet upgrade the "Big 3".

SolidDigital

well I found what looked like the ground for the block and a small wire coming out of the alternator wrap that also goes to ground not far from the engine ground right by the ignition wire that runs to the distributor. They were tight and didn't look rusty.

I couldn't tell for sure but it looked like the battery negative was on the passenger side up behind the skid plate too far for me to reach up to check the tightness, but the bolt head did look rusty..

mt_goat

What about the short one foot wire from the battery ground to the inner-fender.

madmin

I just did the alternator brush replacement - now I'm getting a serious screech - belt tension appears ok. Did I miss something?

Thanks -
Mike.

SolidDigital

Didn't see any short one to the battery, the negative ran into a tube with other wires and I couldn't tell where it went.. haven't taken the time to try to find it still. So far it hasn't died on me or seemed weak like it did before though. *knock on wood* lol



you have to put quite a bit of tension on it, mine doesn't give much at all when pushing on it.. have you read this write up: http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/mainte...nator_brushes/

madmin

That was it - I really had to crank down on it. Thanks -
Mike.

SolidDigital

Could brushes go bad in a year and a half?

Two days ago my truck started dying so I replaced the year old battery. They didn't have the exact number to replace it so I got one that was the same size, just around an inch and a half shorter that had around 50 more cranking amps and 25 more cold cranking amps.

Today driving it to the hospital everything seemed alright.. but when I came out to start it, the clock dimmed and it didn't have enough juice to get it running. Thankfully there was someone nice enough to give me a jump start, it's a scorcher today.

Should I replace the alternator? The slightly more powerful battery shouldn't make a difference should it?

Thanks for any help with this, I need to get it right so I'm not stranded everywhere.

P.S. The truck has hardly seen 3k miles since the brushes were replaced. I have a volt meter, any specific way I should go about testing stuff?

SolidDigital

Well the battery was reading 12.8 volts and when I started the truck it was staying around 13.8. Turned the lights on and it went down to 13.5 and watched it for about 2-3 min's and it was slowly going down to 13.2 and still dropping.
Its idle was around 650 rpm, didn't check what it was when I started it but not much higher and it settled into that rpm pretty fast with the volts still dropping after that.

What other part of an alternator could go bad besides the brushes? since the volts drop at idle with a slight load doesn't it sound like a bad alternator?

Crawdad

If you rev the engine up to around 2500rpm, what voltage are you getting? Honestly 13.x at idle on a battery that was reading 12.8 is where it should be.

Aside from the brushes - the diodes, the voltage regulator, and the bearings of the alternator can all go bad. You can buy the voltage regulator for around $60USD, but I wouldn't run out and buy one. Bearings start squeaking and chattering before they go, and don't cause any voltage fluctuations. Diodes certainly will, but you might as well replace the whole alternator if you've got diode problems.

SolidDigital

Thanks for the info.. I'm looking at remanufactured alternators and there are a lot of different brands. Any one brand better than another?

I'll have to go back out and rev it, was gonna check that but it's kinda hard holding the volt meter on there and reaching over to the throttle body =p

Crawdad

I know the feeling, I can usually get my girlfriend to help hold the voltmeter for about 30 seconds before she gets bored .

On alternators, some will recommend sending it off to someone to rebuild - I don't remember the guy's name, but I'm sure someone will. I personally just went to Advance Auto and bought a re manufactured Denso alternator with lifetime warranty for $150ish. It was a kick in the wallet, but by then I was tired of screwing with it. I'd already replaced brushes, tried a new voltage regulator, and managed to buy an unworking $20 alternator from the junkyard.

SolidDigital

Carquest down the street sells a remanufactured one for 135 with exchange.. of course they have to order it so I'd have to wait if I got it from them. advanceauto has one in stock but I forgot what brand he said.. anyway they want 130 and it has a lifetime limited warranty.

SolidDigital

Man you had some real bad luck with all that.. glad the new one took care of the problem though.

Almost makes me want to send it off if there's someone good to do it since I've already put brushes in it, but with the time it'd take with shipping and everything idk if it's worth not having a truck for a while.

SolidDigital

I just called another advance auto about the same distance in the other direction and they call it "worldwide" remanufactured for 128 and 60 core with lifetime warranty.

Wonder if they'd give me the core fee back if I kept my new brushes out of this one lol.