95 YJ alternator...again

Well, if you rember, sometime before Christmas I had the alternator quit charging on my YJ. Over the Christmas weekend I took the whole charging system apart, cleaned all the connections and tightened the belt. This worked OK... until last Monday, anyway. On the way to work, I look down and the Check Engine light is on again. Looked over at the volt gauge, and sure enough, not charging again. I just knew it was too good to be true. Anyway, continued on to work and had my boss get hold of the service manager at the local Dodge store. Borrowed the factory troubleshooting manual for the charging system(it was throwing a code

41 'generator field not switching'). Spent about a 1/2 hour with a multi-meter and a couple of wrenchs to find that I had too high of resistance in the field circuit inside the alt. Removed the alt from the Jeep and took it to a place I know that rebuilds them. After inspection, it was determined that the brushes had worn the commutator rings down so far that the brushes were not contacting them anymore. Glenn says this is a common fault with the ND alternators. He installed a good used rotor and a set of brushes, changed me $50 and sent me on my way. Now, this morning when I get to work, I'll reinstall the alt. and be good to go again...*and* I have a lot more confidence in this repair than I did the last one.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPUNGER#2

Reply to
Old Crow
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How many miles on that old alternator?

Reply to
SoK66

I just changed the Altenator in my YJ for $90 and 10 minutes. Why not just put a rebuilt one in and be done with it? You've already spent a lot of hours on this....

Reply to
Jasonp

Yeah.. I would like to know also... My alternator in my YJ is 10 years old and works great.. But if and when it does die.. I am thinking of getting a Mean Grean Alternator.. Especially when I hook up a winch..

Ben

95 YJ 2.5L
Reply to
Ben

I went with a cheap bosch alt, I have no winch....it has a 5 year warranty, so if it dies a couple times no biggy.

Reply to
Jasonp

I have the same alternator and a winch. Gotta love a warranty that is good coast to coast, eh.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Jas>

Reply to
Mike Romain

YA!! I was told not to get one....But they are so cheap, I dont really care if I have to replace it once in a while...

Reply to
Jasonp

The alternators in both my vehicles have rebuilt by my former boss, his side line job at the time was rebuilding them, starters, generators etc. He had to do a rebuild on a newly rebuilt alternator the previous owner had installed in the wagon (2 months before I bought it), I know the shop that did the original rebuild and would rather trust my 7 year old to rebuild them better.

Snow...

Reply to
Snow

What's in a rebuild....bears and brushes?

Reply to
SteveBrady

Reply to
RoyJ

Around 187,000, assuming that the previous owners never had it replaced before.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPUNGER#2

Reply to
Old Crow

Well in my case it was a bearing, a rotor and brushes. $59 including tax. I coulda got a rebuilt from O'Reilly's through my son's girlfriend(who works there) for $82, but I can use the extra $20 for gas next week.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPUNGER#2

Reply to
Old Crow

Well, lets see...at Christmas time I was pretty well tapped out and also had 4 days off work. It cost me nothing to fire up the heater in the shop and spend a couple hours cleaning connections(Oh, yeah, I also installed the fog lights I got for Christmas). That worked for 3 weeks, so it wasn't really wasted time. Last week, I spent about 20 minutes with the service manual figuring out if it was the alt or computer. This included removing the alt. I then spent $59 to have the thing rebuilt. 1 year warranty(locally, but I never take the Jeep out of the area anyway). Took me another 15 minutes to put the thing back together Friday morning at work.

Don't know where you got a rebuilt for $90. The only way I could come close to that price was to buy it through my son's girlfriend who works at a parts store. Around here the cheapest I could find was around $125.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPUNGER#2

Reply to
Old Crow

Reply to
RoyJ

Reply to
RoyJ

Yeah, for a Delco. But then I'd have the damned Check Engine light on all the time. DC opted for a NipponDenso alt, with the regulator in the PCM on my Jeep. Them damn little Japanese alternators are more expensive than a good ol' Delco.

-- Old Crow '82 Shovelhead FLTC 92" 'Pearl' '95 Jeep Wrangler YJ TOMKAT, BS#133, SENS, MAMBM, DOF#51, SPUNGER#2

Reply to
Old Crow

in three months I've had zero issues with my $90CAD alternator....no lights no weird voltage, nothing....im happy so far

Reply to
Jasonp

He has a newer Jeep, they don't have 'real' alternators like the older ones.

If he uses a real alternator, then he will have a check engine light which will fail him on emissions.

He only has a generator of sorts with no voltage regulator in it. The regulator is now in the computer so if you want a 'new' voltage regulator be prepared to fork out a couple grand. A used one is between $250.00 and $500.00 from what I have heard.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Jas>

Reply to
Mike Romain

im pretty much stupid when it comes to vehicles but this yj has has been great, I've been able to do everything myself...granted I've screwed up a couple times but Im still ahead....

Reply to
Jasonp

Reply to
L.W.( ßill ) Hughes III

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