Ok my 30 year old alt. bearing craped out and destroyed my belt. I replaced the alt. and the next day going to work the the gen light came on. Got back to the house and checked it out. Bat. Terminal =11.70vdc "F" terminal = 3.6 vdc "R" terminal = 4.7 vdc regulator pin 2 = 4.9 vdc Continuity tests good on all 4 wires. Bat. terminals clean. Replaced voltage regulator but still the Gen. light continues to shine. I am leaning to a bad alt. but I thought I would get an opinion here first before I start breaking heads at NAPA.
Well It was a bad alt. In fact they put it on the machine and in the middle of the test the bearing locked up. So the Centurion rides again.
Good Heavens, a brand new alt. bearing locked up during the test? What kind of cr#p is NAPA selling these days?:blast: Sheesh... That's one reason I run my belts only as tight as they have to be without slipping. They last longer, and so do bearings / water pumps. James
They sell 2 grades. The first one I got was thier cheap grade (by $7.00) because it was all they had in region. The second one was the premium brand. The cheap ones are not rebuilt totaly just the part thats broke. The premium is a total rebuild. ou: At one time I was putting a new NAPA starter and alt. on my Valiant once a year like clockwork. That was before I bought the lightwieght starter and 65 amp Summit alt. What is the best lightwieght starter for the Buick? Is there a GM unit available. The reason I ask is because I replaced it 3 months ago with a NAPA unit.
There are re-conditioned GM starters, of course. Tilton makes a lightweight starter. I have been sold alternators that had the f-connector hole at the wrong clock positionou: Must be set up for a Chevy! Of course the parts stores will not accept this and I have to either drag the guy out to the car and show him, or argue the point when the old alt. is right there on the bench in front of him, plainly with a different position for the hole..."But it will fit!", they always say...lol, sure, if I drill a hole through the cylinder head:grin:
Mine came with directions on how to rotate the assembly to change the mounting position. However the first alt I got from them had a diferent "R F" terminal alltogether. Also they didn't offer a 2 pulley unit only single!! With all the popularity of GM's I didn't think I would be hunting down parts for my Buick like I do my Plymouths! By the way I talked to a guy today that has a 71 GS that he put a Stinger Breakerless Ignition on. He said it was expensive but he has had no problems with it . With all the problems I have read about the Pertronix system i'd like to check this out. Does anyone know about this system and where I can find one. He got his from TA years ago but thier online cat. doesn't list it.
Glenn, Stinger Ignitions doesn't have a Web site that I know of but,you can contact them at 520-771-8422. Thier in Prescott Az.:Smarty: I still have an original Stinger Ignition in my 70 Skylark 350,12 years now and no problems whatsoever :TU:[except a burned out coil] They are great to deal with,when my coil expired 4 years ago I tracked them down and talked to the son of the original owner,after talking with him and discussing my problem on what coil to use,he promptly send me a New one,NO charge!! Gotta love that kind of dedication,I was very impressed with his honesty and devotion to his product. A very rare trait in todays consumer market:TU: PS .I forgot to mention I bought the complete Stinger Ignition,distributer and all from Poston back in '92.When I called Poston about my coil problem all they told me was Stinger Ign.went out of business and they [Poston] couldn't help me replace the stinger coil. Just goes to show ya,if I could find them,why couldn't Poston??? I quess they didn't care!
Thanks Kenny. I will give them a ring soon. He had a coil burn out also but he replaced it with an accell.
