"MUADIB®" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com... | On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:33:50 GMT, "carl mciver" | wrote: | | > My wife has a 74 VW and I've been battling dead battery problems for | >months now. Recently I had changed out the regulator and brushes, and while | >the battery voltage was on the low side and showing that it was charging | >properly, the alternator light was still on. It all works right but there's | >still the light. I had nine something volts on the alternator/generator | >field side of the light and twelve on the other. After much scratching of | >my head, I put the meter on AC and found six volts AC. So there it was, six | >volts AC, which says I have a bad diode in the pack. | > Is rebuilding the Motorola alternator as easy as I've read it to be? | | | | Make sure you don't have the external regulator. It will be mounted on | drivers' side under the back seat (US) and will be marked "Motorolla" | Not much to it, smaller than a pack of smokes. metal cover, solid | state. | | The external regulator is , if my memory serves me right, no longer | available. Normally one replaces the Alternator with a new Bosch unit, | and wire around the Motorolla piece.
I got another regulator at Schuck's for thirty something bucks the other day. Had to order it, but that was no big deal. My local alternator repair shop supplies me with all the parts I need to do rebuilds, but I just wanted to know if the job was something I needed special tools, equipment, or skills to do. Rebuilding alternators and such is no big deal, I just hate having something apart and all over the bench and having to stop for lack of something I should have known about. Most car manuals don't touch alternator rebuilds, so it's territory limited to the adventuresome or the professional shop.