I broke the positive stud on my alternator coming from the rectifier. The alternator was already fukcin' up to start with ever since I arced it when trying to take the alternator belt off. (I know, stupid.)

Anyway, the alt stud was glowing red hot and melting any rubber or whatever was in the area. So I was going to see what the deal was yesterday and disconnect the wires (0ga straight to battery for stereo + OEM wire to fuse box) and the stud broke!

Many auto recyclers and parts stores say the vtec EX alternator is not the same as the DX/LX alternators. But it seems easier at this point to find DX/LX alternators used. So I want to use one of those temporarily if I can.

Even on http://www.hondaautomotive.com, all the parts of the EX vs. DX/LX alternator are the same. But the entire alternator assembly part number varies by only the last digit--113254 (EX) vs. 113253 (DX/LX).

I've even seen a picture of the 4th gen alternator on ebay and it LOOKS IDENTICAL to the alternator on my car that I've removed many times in the last three months.

So why can't I just use a DX/LX or a 4th gen alt on my 5th gen ('97) EX?