dan1495

The charging system on my 90 has been working fine - until tonight. I drove it 2 miles to the store and when I started it for the drive home I noticed a burning electrical smell, the battery light was on and the volt meter was down to around 10 volts. I looked under the hood and the belt was still there and the alternator was turning with no unusual noise. I made it home, barely. I am assuming the alternator went out. Is it it common for them to just work one minute and go out the next, or is there something else that could cause this? The prior owner had the alternator replaced about 18 months ago.

cal55

It sounds like your alternator, I would take it off and have it checked at your local parts store. If it was replaced 18 months ago, maybe it was a bad rebuilt unit.

Joe

WVZR-1

I don't believe my first move would be to "remove" the alternator! It might well be an alternator going south but "removing" the LT5 alternator and "carrying" it down the street for a "check" ain't the 1st move.

If it were an outright alternator failure and you could smell it last evening you should likely be able to do a "sniff test" on the alternator this morning and see if the alternator is the source of the "smell" but removing it as a 1st move is still a "NO"!

LT5corsa

Dan

Do you have the battery on a tender?

How old is the battery?

Start there...



David

cal55

Here's a video on how to check your alternator, I guess I should have thought of this first.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppra8eXETOE

dan1495

The battery is about 4 1/2 years old and has 18,000 miles on it. I was out of town for a week and did have the battery on a tender on while I was gone. Now that you mention it the battery did go flat very quickly after the light came on. I turned everything off for the short drive home and by then the ABS light was already on.
Thanks for all of the replies so far.

torchred96

The alternator on my z went out about 1 month after I had put a new audio amp and radio in the car. Turned off radio, turned lights off to just fog lights and got about 1 mile from my home before the car shut off.
Alternator rotor was bad. Had it rebuilt locally and the guy showed me the rotor....he was able to use a used one from another alt.. The point is, when the alt dies, the battery in our cars dies VERY quickly. Maybe mine uses more amps due to the 16 injectors working all the time (off idle)

As a point of contrast, My honda prelude alternator went out completely 100 miles from home. I was able to make it home (in the daytime) on battery charge alone. When I got home, I shut off the car and restarted it...it was obviously discharged but not dead like the z's was in only 5 miles.

dan1495

Update: I went ahead and took the alternator off and had it checked. It failed miserably. For the record, it was a Bosch rebuilt unit that was put on 14 months/3000 miles ago.

Thanks again for the replies.

Mike 92LX

Get it rebuilt before buying a cheap auto store unit.

WVZR-1

If the alternator is an original yes that's likely a good idea, now the issue is quality replacement parts and if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself finding a shop that DOES use quality parts. The OP was already into a "reman" so I'm quite sure it wasn't an option!

WydGlydJim

If you still have your old OEM one, it is nice to have a high quality rebuild done on it. We have a very good restorer here in town, and when mine went south ('90 MY) I had them rebuild it. It came out fantastic, and looked absolutely new, with repainted items, and new shiney screws, etc..

http://www.acealternatorstarter.com/About.aspx


Ace Alternator is the place.......they are know world wide, and do restorations on $x,xxx,xxx.00 autos. The new looking OEM unit really was the finishing touch, when I did the new powdercoating on the '90

Here is a comparison of a rebuild unit after powdercoating, as opposed to just putting an old unit back on......not to dis anyone, just a comparison.......both very clean engines

scottfab

If you were able to get the alternator out then you are more that capable of rebuilding the alternator yourself. It's a POS to get the thing out. It's not hard at all to replace the bearings, brushes and diode pack. And even if the field windings on the rotor touched the stator part the rotor is easily replaced.
Just make sure the rebuild kit (from NAPA or where ever) is for the higher 120amp unit and that the bearings in the kit roll freely with no gritty sound.

Zrxmax

I found a 200 amp unit on E bay. Its still sitting in the box waiting for the day I get to it. Meanwhile, my 1st Optima lasted 8 years (group 78) and I put another one in earlier this year. I plan to change the alternator before it goes south as preventative maintenance.