I have a puzzling situation. I have 2 alternators, both are off the car, individual.

On one of the alternators I can spin the pulley freely, its very easy, and itll keep spinnin on its own if i give it a good whirl. On the other alternator the pully is rock-solid, i cant even budge it using all my strength.

So which alternator is trash? The one with the free-spinning pulley or the one with the rock hard pulley?

thanks! i kno 1 of these 2 is dead!

 

Hi mate, I would go for the one that is tight and hard to spin as being the bad one. Probably the bearings are shot inside it causing it harder too turn.

 

the alt you cant spin is the bad one. should spin freely when off the car.

 

really? i would think it was the other way around becuase it needs resistance to build friction thus creating energy?

or is that not how it works?

*note: the one that i said is hard to turn, i actually cant turn at ALL

 

The one that can't spin is bad. The spinning turns mechanical energy into electrical energy, which is how the alternator works.

 

The one you cant turn is bad, i mean come on, how is it going to work if it cant move

 

you want one that can spin. the rock hard one is probably **** because the bearings are probably seized up. they need to spin to generate electricity.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The one you cant turn is bad, i mean come on, how is it going to work if it cant move </TD></TR></TABLE>

duhr haha idk i never had one of these off the car before and im pretty sure the one that does spin is bad/dying thats why i got the other but i guess its even worse

I think the one that spins is bad cause i have some headlight flicker (get brighter with acceleration) and recently my gauge cluster started randomly goin haywire (needles twitchin all over, dying completely, then returning to normal operation) which i though could be caused by a dying alternator....

Could these symptoms be caused by a faulty alternator? Or could it be something else? Main Relay?

Car works fine, no operational issues other than the wacky cluster movements and headlight dimming and such.

 

If your not sure about the alt. take it to autozone theyll test it for free. But your symtoms sound more like a distributor problem (atleast with the gauge cluster). Maybe your cars haunted.

 

My vote is that both of your alternators are ****. Buck up and go to Autozone, or whatever your local parts store is and grab one.

 

i know it cant be the dizzy cause the dizzy i got is basically brand spankin new.... my old dizzy cause a similar issue but it was ONLY the rpms, and it was cause of like a dying ignitor or something... replaced it and fixed that issue but then after runnin the new dizzy for like 500miles the cluster started going crazy (all guages) but its not cutting spark like the other dizzy was when it was causing my rpms to wander....

could the cluster just be trash? or is it the alternator? I dont wanna blow $$ on a new alternator if it isnt needed, also the white wire that goes to the alternator with a nut looks a lil blackened/melted where it connects to the alt

 

start your car and then take the negative battery cable off. If the car dies then your alternator is bad

 

anyway to test the alternators if they are off the car? can advance auto even test them if they are off teh car?

Im thinking the one i have that spins isnt dead but its "dying"

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Autozone does this for free.