Bank holiday repair needed...

[balders118]

Does anyone know anywhere in Leeds or Leeds side of Bradford that would be able to source and fit a re-conitioned or second hand alternator for a ford puma?

Obviously I could just wait until tuesday, but I'm already having to take monday off work as I can't get in (I don't get paid like a lot of people unless I work BH's) so would be good to get it sorted asap. I also don't really want to buy a brand spanking one as piling a lot of money into a car not worth a huge amout doesn't make good business!!

Cheers

[wildoliver]

Get across to U pull it near York tomorrow, will cost you peanuts and they are easy to fit, the alternator will be the same as most Fords, they have literally hundreds in but I was also there the other day and they did have a couple of Pumas.

[balders118]

I don't think it'll make it to york and back. I'll have already run it for 45 mins or so by the time I get home tonight and I can't see it lasting more than a few hours on the battery. Especially as it'll be dark when I drive home tonight.

[16v stretch]

If you can find somewhere open that has one available tomorrow, I'd be more than happy to lend a hand.

[balders118]

Thanks very much. If my battery is dead it could be that too apparently, so I need to find out what's causing it really. A trip to halfords to test the battery tomorrow maybe before I commit to getting an alternator. The connections are also covered in a creamy, foamy, greasy kind of stuff (?) so I'll probably try giving them a clean and seeing if that makes a difference. Early start for me tomorrow then.

[16v stretch]

The foamy stuff is white grease (or vaseline (ooh eerr missus)) which helps to stop them corroding, you can use a multimeter to quickly check the battery or alternator if you have one(a multimeter that is, not battery/alt). Set it to the 50 volt scale, red lead to the positive, black to the negative. Wait for about 15 seconds, for a 12v battery to charge you need at least 9.6 to show on the multimeter, less than that and it's probably toast. And for the alternator check with the engine running, you should see 13v+ across the terminals with the engine running.

I think those are the right figures, been a while since I've had to check.

[balders118]

16v stretch said:

The foamy stuff is white grease (or vaseline (ooh eerr missus)) which helps to stop them corroding, you can use a multimeter to quickly check the battery or alternator if you have one(a multimeter that is, not battery/alt). Set it to the 50 volt scale, red lead to the positive, black to the negative. Wait for about 15 seconds, for a 12v battery to charge you need at least 9.6 to show on the multimeter, less than that and it's probably toast. And for the alternator check with the engine running, you should see 13v+ across the terminals with the engine running.

I think those are the right figures, been a while since I've had to check.

Thanks a lot. I don't have one but I'm hoping a kind halfords employee will let me borrow theirs.

[balders118]

So this morning before I went down to Halford to get a battery/alternator test I thought I'd have a ganders under the bonnet. Loosened this bolt right off gave it a wiggle and tightened it up again. Voila! Battery light no longer on when driving. Took it to halfords anyway and they said the battery is a bit nakered, but that is probably becuase I drove it for an hour or so yesterday with no charge, but with the engine running the battery is charging as it should. Awesome!