Noisey Alternator

[MGMAN50]

It appears I have a noisy alternator on my 93 pre serpentine chim. The noise is a squeal and is either the alternator or the water pump. Suspect the Alternator, as when it first started, the ingnition light came on and the car momentarily stalled. Plan to replace the bearing in the alternator pully. Never stripped an alternator before so I am asking the following questions.

1. how easy is it to remove the bearing from the alternator front pully ?

2. Where do I get a replacement bearing?

3. Seems from searching PH that others have had bearings replaced for £40.

3.1 Where? 3.11 and by whom ?

[parrot of doom]

Mine did this recently. I had it changed.

I still have the old one, if you want it you can have it, just pay me the postage and its yours

[spend]

The ignition light commonly stays on until the revs first hit 2000rpm on these models. Just loosen the fan belt, and spin / flex the pump & alt pulleys, the tactile & audible responses should give a good clue. Its a good time to check the fan belt & if you take the alt off dont discount the brush pack (the carbon may have worn out by now:-).

Dave

[GreenV8S]

Get yourself a mechanic's stethoscope, worth its weight in gold for tracking this sort of thing down. For the alternator itself, personally I'd exchange it rather than recondition it myself.

[willmcc]

I use a big long screwdriver for tracking sounds down, just rest it on offending part other end against ear. keep clothing hair etc well out of engine or it could all go horribly wrong.
My Alternator is whining like a roots bloower, time to change I think, does seem to be a fairly common fault, is it a design fault with the rover fan belt being over tightened?

[GreenV8S]

willmcc said:

I use a big long screwdriver for tracking sounds down, just rest it on offending part other end against ear.

This is the technique I used, until I found out how much better a proper stethoscope is. If you haven't tried one, I really would encourage you to.

[gixxer78]

Hey there, I had a similar issue on my 96 Serp engine'd Chimaera. Thought it was the tensioner/wheel at first, then possibly the alternator bearing , then the water pump. I took it to a TVR main dealer, they couldnt work out where it was coming from and said to get my alternator refurb'd. I thought i would start with the cheaper route and replace the tensioner. I replace it, noise still there, replaced the water pump, noise still there, then some kind chap who i met in pro-tyre whilst having my wheels balance suggested it could be the belt. so to begin with i sprayed some belt dressing on whilst the engine was ticking over, this seemed to solve the noise straight away....so changed the belt for new, and no noise!!

Guess the jist of what i am trying to say is that by no means did the noise sound like the belt was at fault....sounded just like a bearing had gone ...
strange uh!

all the best....

[MGMAN50]

Thanks all for your comments. Removed the alternator and its obvious by the amout of play in the front pulley that the bearing is knackerd, so going for a a new alternator. But the goods news was, my local discount spares place got me an exchange unit for £57. So how about that then ! Although it is an 80 amp unit it has the bolt on wires and not the plug, but they seem to be the cheapest, so I don't mind.

[spend]

If you need to change, plugs are only a £1, but I thought most of the alts had both fittings anyway (with a pop-in blank covering the plug hole)?

Dave