Replace Alternator

[Grandpot]

My alternator just died  .  How do I know?  My I/S stopped running.  I've had the I/S for about a year and did not realize it did not have an alternator idiot light.  Who's the idiot now?

According to Ken at MARS, Honda outsourced their alternators to China in 1996.  These alternators have rotor windings that have a high failure rate between 30,000 and 40,000 miles.  Mine I/S had 35,000 miles.

If you have a failure it is easy to test the rotor field.  Just remove the alternator, take apart until you can put you meter leads on the two slip rings.  If it reads open, then it is bad.  Normally it will have a couple of ohms of resistance.

I'm going to give Ken a plug here.  His service is great.  I emailed him at 8:00am on Saturday, he called me five minutes later.  Within an hour I had a UPS tracking number.  UPS didn't pick up until Monday.  I had the alternater in my hands at noon on Wednesday.  His website is http://mysite.verizon.net/resp3jbj/ 

[Kingbee]

In the future, you may want to keep an eye on things.  All you need is a 2" hole saw to install, and a wire to your accessory lead.




$23 at J C Whitney and they also sell a matching water temp gauge that can be put in the other pod.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/Product/Pr-p_Product.CATENTRY_ID:2008866/c-10101/Nty-1/p-2008866/Ntx-mode+matchallpartial/N-10101/tf-Browse/s-10101/Ntk-AllTextSearchGroup?Ntt=voltmeter

I've got a Stebel horn in there also, & it all fits, no problem

[Grandpot]

Kingbee:

While I was waiting for the rebuilt unit to arrive, I installed a voltmeter just like you suggested.  In fact I put it in the same location you did and hooked it up to the accessory lead.  Scary similar thinking. 

I live by my moto: Experience is recognizing the same mistake every time you make it!