So we spent a Saturday evening observing the street racers in North Sacramento. What a thrill watching ricers getting popped by local cops as they were showing off for our small gathering of Corvettes. (Did you know that a ricers passenger is more obnoxious than the driver?) But thats another story for another time. On the drive back home a very obvious whinning noise started eminating from under the hood, followed by the sickly smell of hot wires. A quik check of voltage showed we still had 12.5 volts yet the digi-dash lites were slightly flickering. Opened the hood and could have BBQ'd a rack of ribs on the alternator. That puppy was hot!. Armed with a fire extinguisher and battery cable cutters we elected to head home without further delay.

Findng a Corvette alternator on a Sunday can be a little difficult. The one we did find (AutoZone) was bad out of the box! So what to do? A close insection of the cousin's 93 Chevy pickup concluded we had a match for my 86 104 Amp. Only difference was the front housing. A little extra work and VIOLA! The Vette had 14.1 volts again and -JRC- was on the road home!

Conclusion: The problem with the alternator was a bad diode on the diode bridge. We could make a little voltage, and generate lots of heat and noise. Had we run the car too long I'm pretty sure a fire would have resulted.

:cheers: -JRC-

 

Hi Steve, Have you thought about upgrading your alternator to a newer higher output one? Here is a site that carries something like that: http://www.corvetteclinicinc.com look under C4 solutions and find the upgrade. BTW, did you get the beam plates installed?

 

Yep! The old unit IS being upgraded to a 140A version.

C-Beam plates have been in for over 3000 miles. Love'em! Car tracks straight with heavy power applied. Just like it should!

:cheers: -JRC-