Steve Cargill Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 Our family had the joy of arriving home this morning an 2am on the back of an AA lorry. Driving along I got the feeling the dash lights wern't as bright as they should have been (I was bringing it back from Leons and hadn't driven it for nearly 3 months). The ABS warning light came on and then lots of others amd the speedo and tacho started jumping all over the place. There were no other warning lights prior to this, which I guess was caused by low voltage now. Battery was deadish. Got the AA out, they found the battery terminals were loose and tightend them but that wasn't the problem. They diagnosed a duff alternator and brought us home. I've had a search around and can't find any info on how to change the alternator. Is it a bitch or do I just take off the under-tray and there it is? One thing I found on searching is the possibility of it being the alternator fuse - white one top left of fuse box. Any other hints and tips on what to look for. HEELLLLP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnK Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 I had the exact same thing on an old car, (not a supe) The dash lit up lik an xmas tree. It was the regualtor on the altinator that had gone, it was pushing out 16 - 17v more than enough to fry your battery. Worth looking into as a new regulator (if you can change those seperatly) might be a lot cheaper than a whole new altinator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cargill Posted June 15, 2003 Author Share Posted June 15, 2003 I've had a quick look and the fuse looks OK - you can see the metal loop in the top but I couldn't get it out to test!! The alternator has black stuff on the front, but I'd guess that is from the belt? There is no charging voltage coming out of it. John, the warning lights only come one once the battery is too low, not when the car is running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dude Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 You could allways test it with a small multimeter, but it does sound goosed , i can get mine off easily but i dont have a viscous fan in the way , after what youve spent on an engine a nice new allternator must be on the cards. John:flame Dev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Martin F Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 That fuse is a real pig to get out, if it's like the MKIII one (which i believe it is) it's bolted in. Just try doing a continuity test between the battery and the alternator when the battery's off of course. Sorry to hear of your bad news after all the recent hassles Steve. It might be worth taking your alternator to an auto-electrical place as it may just be a diode or regulaor gone as mentioned. Hell of a lot cheaper than a replacement alternator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cargill Posted June 15, 2003 Author Share Posted June 15, 2003 Martin, I couldn't see a bolt holding the fuse in, looked like it has clips on the side for a puller to latch onto. Dude, what's another few hundred when you've just had you bank well and truly emptied It look like I can get the fan off with the bolts on the front of it's centre and that will give enough room to get into the alternator. (Battery out first of course) How is the belt tensioned - is there a tensioner or does the alternator do that? How tight, at the moment there is hardly any flex in the belt. Couple of bolts and off it comes? Looks like a BIG cable bolted to the side of it and a connector block into the back. 1/2 hours work, all from the top , any gotchas? How many wires should there be coming off the battery. I've got one off the -ve and two (both thick) off the +ve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Martin F Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 Maybe there isn't a bolt but i'm assuming it is the 100A fuse, which on the MKIII has a bolt through the side of it which is only visible from underneath the fuse box. You can un-tension the ancillaries belt once the fan is off, just use a lever on the tensioner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cargill Posted June 15, 2003 Author Share Posted June 15, 2003 Originally posted by Martin F Maybe there isn't a bolt but i'm assuming it is the 100A fuse, which on the MKIII has a bolt through the side of it which is only visible from underneath the fuse box. You can un-tension the ancillaries belt once the fan is off, just use a lever on the tensioner. Ahhh, didn't look underneath - it's got a clear top and looks OK, I guess if it had gone a 100A fuse would be blown to bits and it would have been spotted at the time.... I've looked up the part numbers for the alternator, UK auto and early J spec TT's are the same - also both 100A, the others are 90A Is it just a spring loaded tensioner then, lever it and pop the belt off and then the reverse for fitting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dude Posted June 15, 2003 Share Posted June 15, 2003 Try to remember how the belt runs as it can seem like a chinese puzzle when you try to refit , just the tensioner to release to get the belt off but use a big bar as its quite stiff. John:flame Dev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
400BHP Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 An alternator will not produce any voltage unless it sees 12v present if the recification pack is functioning correctly, hence why when you jump start you should leave the jumper battery connected for a bit. You can get the alternator re wound if the windings have gone but its more likely that the diode pack or rectifier has gone faulty. These are usually bolt on parts so they should be available. And my car has a belt routing diagram on the air intake pipe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cargill Posted June 16, 2003 Author Share Posted June 16, 2003 I took the alternator off this evening, not too bad but fiddly and took about 30 minutes. The black you can see on the picture in an earlier post is all around and looks more like burn/soot than rubber dust; nothing melted though. The bearings are OK, but it does look old and a bit corroded. I couldn't get the 120A fuse out but tested continuity between the BIG cable on the alternator and the nut under the red cover in the fuse box. This looks like it's on the other side of the fuse to the alternator cable. All OK. Don't know exactly how to test the alternator, but anyway I've got a new one on order. Toyota don't have one in this country but do in Europe so should be here the tail end of thsi week. Finger crossed it goes in and works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Martin F Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 Black soot could be a number of things, arcing between the windings, problems with brushes, etc. If it's the windings then these are not always easily repaired by an auto electrical centre, particularly on less common alternators where parts may be hard to come by. Still as you've ordered a new replacement this shouldn't worry you. Fingers crossed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cargill Posted June 20, 2003 Author Share Posted June 20, 2003 I'm expecting the alternator to arrive today, when I put it back together should I put anything (vaseline/WD40) into the multi-block that goes in the back of it? It looks dry and weathered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supra_Al Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 Yep for sure Steve. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
400BHP Posted June 20, 2003 Share Posted June 20, 2003 use electrical grease, maplins sell it. Go sparingly otherwise you will end up with a dusty dirty blob of shit attached to your plug... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Cargill Posted July 8, 2003 Author Share Posted July 8, 2003 YES YES YES, I've got a working car again. I picked up the alternator last night and fitted it no problem. With a jump start the car started and ran OK on it's on. Went out for a quick drive and the battery is now charged. :D There was one strange thing though, the alternator I took off was not the correct one for my car - it was a for a manual, 90A instead of the 100A one it should have been. Getting a strange noise when backing off. Done a search and will start a new thread :-(( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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