Hey, im just little bit confused as I rebuild my alternator on my 68 Riviera with the 430 cui. 1st I cant remember if it is normal that the shaft has some play when I switch it back and forth? I had only one spacer and I think it was before the front bearing direct behind the air pulley. 2nd thing the alternator is not the original one it has 2 grooves in the pulley and no diodes on the backside as mentioned in the chassis service manual. Also some owner before remove the voltage regulator on the firewall and installed a simple relay. I buyed already a new external voltage regulator should it have be a problem to install them or do I need a new alternator?
That looks like a 10SI unit. Make sure the wiring for the regulator and the original plug for your external unit is there.
John your right. That's a internally regulated alternator. The firewall mounted regulator should be bypassed . Theres several ways to do it. But if that came off your car and it's been charging. And yes, I see it's been done with the relay. I dont know why it was done that way. 2 jumpers does the same. Maybe the relay failed?. After the alternator is together. The spaces goes on , then the fan , pulley, washer , nut. If the nuts tight, the front alternator bearing is a sealed bearing with really no, movement, in and out. ( How much movement? I'm guessing theres a wear tolerance limit ? IDK. ) That's a very large pulley. Heres my jumper with the cover off. Modified regulator. Factory look.
I'm not sure what the relay is all about but here is a fairly straight forward way to convert from external to internal regulator so you'll get an idea on what is going on. That may be complicating things more than necessary. There are about 1000 pages of info when Googled on how to do it. If it was me I'd return the external regulator, check the wiring compared to this video or other info you can gleam off the internet. Not sure of the exact year they were all switched over but 1976 and up Buicks had internal regulators. I like the way Richard did his to keep it stock appearing. One 1/8" or so spacer behind the fan/pulley sounds about right. Some play of the shaft back and forth is completely acceptable. Apparently you already bought the correct rebuilding kit (by using the alternator number I'm assuming) because you got all the correct parts back into the alternator case going by the pictures. The one item with the two terminals is your internal regulator. I'm about to do the very same alternator conversion to my '69 Buick. Why did you feel the need to rebuild your alternator?
Hey, Im glad for your great support. Thank you! I will re-install the voltage regulator and use the jumper method. Yeah sometimes I need to think about what im writing, as I need to mount fan and pulley to fixture the rotor should be logically ;=) Without pulleys and nuts there is play to the front bearing. @NoLift The pre owners was not verry carefully with the car and im just little bit detailed loved. The alternator looks bad and rusty so I put it in the sandblaster remove all the rust get some clear coat and clean the electric connections. Now it looks pretty and I will do also with the distributor (done), steering pump, carb, heads and so on. Great experience to work and learn with as this is my first US car since 9 months. Also great to have such great community here.
