'95 9000 alternator light comes on faintly

Hi,

Today I noticed my alternator light (red battery icon) coming up at lower rev's. When in higher revs (upwards of 3500) it went off again. The voltage indic on the dash confirmed the suspicion. Voltage came down to 10 - 11.8 when lit, when pressed the gas hard, it jumped up to

13 again. Guess the alternator is going bad. Any chance of fixin' this without entirely replaceing the alternator? I heard somebody mention just replace the coal brushes... The alternator looks like a real pain to remove, it's underneith an engine support.

Nel

1995 9000CSi, B204i, 278.000Kms
Reply to
Nel Frikandel
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Yup, brushes (carbon, not coal :-). Yep, it's a pain to get at.

Reply to
Grunff

Since I noticed the symptom, i have the volts indicator constantly on in the dash. And of course I made an appointment with the mechanic for next week hoping to sing it out untill the weekend.... Not!

Tonight on the way home it was "game over, insert new coin". The voltage got lower and lower, finally all instruments went out like a candle, only 5 Km's from home. The engine still ran however. I pulled from the motorway, phoned both home and roadside assistance, and waited....

The roadside guy showed up, and cable started me. I was a bit worried about getting home still considering how quickly it had died on me, but he took a hammer and a screw driver from his car, asked me to hold the flashlight, placed the screwdriver on the alternator hit it a few times with the hammer, and presto, the engine started running ran steadier, the headlights started burning brightly again, the alternator light was gone and the voltage indicator is happy at 13.5 again....

Unbelievable. I remember I used to reanimate a stuck starter with a hammerstroke, but the alternator I had not heard before...

Those roadside guys are miracle workers, I swear...

Reply to
Nel Frikandel

Hi, I had some problems with the alternator, see previous post.

It died on me last week, and a road-help guy revived it by hitting on the alternator with a the hammer

It turns out my mechanic could not replace the carbon brushes, because het had never seen the type of alternator that's on my 9000, before.

Seems all 9000's, 9-3's and 9-5 of the last 10 years or so have basically the same 100A or 110A alternator, however mine had a 120A AC-Delco. Unknown for the dutch market, but may be normal for warmer climates... However the coals brushes he had on the shelf did not fit on it.

So I'm left wondering, many readers here being from the US, is a 120A standard over there, with all your Airco's and all on?

And, since mine continues to give problems, and I don't want to be under the hood hitting it with a hammer every other day, are all alternator identical, mounting point wise? Can I get one from a junker, and will it fit on my engine?

Nel

Reply to
Nel Frikandel

yes, try

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snipped-for-privacy@zonnet.nl (tel 0599 583853)

if not, it can be made to fit.

------- MH

Reply to
MH

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