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What exactly is involved in rewinding an alternator?
How much would a shop charge me for an alternator that I've already pulled out of the car AND disassembled?
Not that I'd ever be able to D-I-Y an alternator rewiring job, but what exactly do they do? I took my alternator off my '97 Accord EX. Aparently the rectifier was bad (I broke the stud off while tryint to connect a stinger HPM 0ga crimpless ring terminal). I replaced my alternator with another alternator from a junkyard and used my old voltage regulator (instead of the salvaged one) and everything is fine (back up to 14.3V again; was as low as 12.1V with car running).
As I was taking apart the alternator, the first thing I removed was the brush(es). The ones on my old alt were a bit low (less than 1/4"). Then I came to the voltage regulator. After that, I removed the rectifier and this gave access to the windings of the alt (after removing half of the case).
My question is, how do the windings transfer power to the rectifier and what is the purpose of the brushes?
If I got the current alt "rewound", would they still use the same rectifier, voltage regulator, and brushes?
quote:Originally posted by JiggaFan: What exactly is involved in rewinding an alternator?
There are different levels of "rewinding" an alternator. You can just rewind the rotor and stator....this will give you the output...but will definitely not give you durability. Or you can rewind the rotor and stator....and replace the regulator and rectifier with heavy duty versions. This is a much better option. All you actually use is the aluminum housing..all internals are replaced.
How much would a shop charge me for an alternator that I've already pulled out of the car AND disassembled?
Depends on what you want them to do. Be careful of a standard rebuild shops that claim to have high output parts. They almost always know nothing about High output alts. They just order parts off the shelf from somewhere that have very little R&D involved. Not to mention what small but very important details they may miss or not know about.
Not that I'd ever be able to D-I-Y an alternator rewiring job, but what exactly do they do? I took my alternator off my '97 Accord EX. Aparently the rectifier was bad (I broke the stud off while tryint to connect a stinger HPM 0ga crimpless ring terminal). I replaced my alternator with another alternator from a junkyard and used my old voltage regulator (instead of the salvaged one) and everything is fine (back up to 14.3V again; was as low as 12.1V with car running).
I would rather not get into exactly what is done to make a quality high output alternator. Trade secrets.
As I was taking apart the alternator, the first thing I removed was the brush(es). The ones on my old alt were a bit low (less than 1/4"). Then I came to the voltage regulator. After that, I removed the rectifier and this gave access to the windings of the alt (after removing half of the case).
My question is, how do the windings transfer power to the rectifier and what is the purpose of the brushes?
The windings your talking about are called the stator. The rotor will induce current into these windings and send power to the rectifier.
The brushes transfer a signal from the regulator to the rotor. This signal is what stabilizes your voltage.
If I got the current alt "rewound", would they still use the same rectifier, voltage regulator, and brushes?
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