I finished my B16 swap a couple months ago, and since then I've been having tons of trouble with my alternator/battery. So first of all I made the mistake of buying a Checker alternator instead of just forking out for a honda, and the first one I bought was for a 92 teg I think. However when I bought the alternator they gave me the option for two different amperages, so I guessed and it worked until like 2 months later, I was running my car at the track and the batt. light came on and it turned out that the alt. was done for. So when I went to get my warrenty exchange at Checker they brought out an alt. of the same part number but it had a different size pulley. I ended up going to a different Checker and they gave me an alt. with the same size pulley. Then a day or two ago I was driving and the light came on again, but this time it would flicker when the engine was at full throttle and around 3 grand. Automatically I assumed it was my alt. again so when I went to pull my car into my garage this morning, it's an optima redtop btw, I open my hood and there is a hissing noise coming from the vent on top and it appears that it may have leaked. This made me think that it getting overcharged so I took the battery to Sears where I bought it and had them test it and it went fine. My question is, why am I blowing these alternators so quick, and is there any chance that the pulley, or amperage rating of my battery and alternator don't match up? Any help or experiences that you could contribute would be great, thanks.

 

bump

 

bump for my pile of ****

 

i've heard of people getting a string of bad alternators from discount parts stores. take it back and have it tested. then exchange it and have them test the new one before you take it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Brownjd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i've heard of people getting a string of bad alternators from discount parts stores. take it back and have it tested. then exchange it and have them test the new one before you take it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

That doesn't surprise me at all, but I'm starting to think that the problem isn't necessarily the alt. because it seems like it's overcharging the battery. The vent on the top of the battery makes a fizzling noise and it appears that it leaked a little. That makes me think that there is a short somewhere but since I replaced the alt. it's run fine for a couple of months, no battery light whatsoever.

EDIT: I don't want to go through the trouble of taking the alt. out if thats not the problem, because it's such a pain in the ***.

 

i'm one of those people who has run into a string of bad alts...four changed within a two-month span.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by phan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i'm one of those people who has run into a string of bad alts...four changed within a two-month span. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Checker &gt; us