HOW TO REPAIR YOUR ALTERNATOR

The alternator is an important component in the starting system of a vehicle, the alternator is the device that charges the battery of a vehicle to keep it running. To know if your alternator is faulty, you would check if the wiring is correct, people always check their alternator whenever they try to turn on the ignition of the vehicle and it doesn’t come on or the running vehicle shuts down during operation. Once you remove the alternator, try to put it on a white paper, then check the belt tension, the voltage drop checks. Like many other alternators, this also has a slip clutch pulley. First step is putting a screwdriver into the alternator casing and then in one direction, one should be able to turn the belt tensioner which is attached to the alternator. If you try to turn it in the other direction, it would be stiff as rock solid. This is to check if the clutch inside the alternator is slipping or not. As long as it is rock solid, I can boldly say that it is not slipping. Some alternators have their oil driven vacuum attached to it also which is for the brake servo. In manufacturing, most alternators don’t have this and it makes it easy to get the alternator on and off the car. We will carry out a test on the alternator, connecting the alternator to a multimeter by touching the terminals of the multimeter and scratching it on the terminals on which the alternator is being connected to the engine. The multimeter is set to 0 (grounded) and then it would show a reading of 1. Connecting a battery from a drill to the alternator and supplying it with 11 volts, this is a full field test, I do this to check if it generates some voltage applied, luckily there is no voltage.
The reason for us repairing the alternator is due to the fact that it is not charging the battery. The reason for connecting the multimeter to the alternator is to check if they are any dead diodes in the alternator. Before dissembling the alternator, it is always advisable to mark out the line of the joining before removing the bolts so that it would be assembled correctly. The bolts are 8mm. After taking off the two bolts, turn it upside down again and remove the other bolts, a gentle tap would be necessary to disengage it. After using a flat screwdriver is used to tap it open, the rotor is seen. Rotate the inner bearing inside to see if the motor is turning, you should also check for the slip rings if they are in good shape. The resistance of the slip rings could also be measured by a multimeter but the setting would be to ohms; from any recording, it is 3 ohms. Also check the stator and brushes to see their condition and check for any evidence of overheating. At this stage, any fault could easily be detected else it is an electronically related fault.