Alternator is not providing a charge

[Beowulf]

Alternator is not providing a charge

Ok, after driving down Hole in the Rock road outside of Escalante, UT the alternator is having trouble providing a charge. There are several places along the road and side roads that have huge talc pits. When you drive through them it is like hitting a sand trap filled with Flour. After several days of driving up and down this road doing some technical canyoneering the alternator started to squeal intermittently. At first we thought it was just the serpentine belt. But upon opening the hood you could easy detect the sound was only coming from the alternator.

When the alternator was in its squeal phase the National Luna battery Monitor showed there was no juice coming from the Alternator and the power in battery fell quickly. After the squealing stopped you could see the power climb dramatically and begin to charge the battery.

Questions:

Is the alternator shot?
Can it be torn down and cleaned out?

 

[SixLug]

if its shot, it would be a good time to upgrade to a HO alternator.

 

[Beowulf]

I am hoping that it can be cleaned out somehow. But if it is shot, I'm sure a super HO unit will be in order.

 

[BlueBomber]

have you tried blowing it out with an air compressor? I know it wont blow it compleatly clean, but its worth a shot.

 

[SixLug]

So it does this on and off often or what? Im not sure what it would sound like, but the dust might be getting between the brushes and sliprings and squealing. I dont know if that could interupt the flow of electricity though.

It doesnt sound like any bearing problem to me just b/c when it squeals it stops working, and bearings have nothing to do with the electrical part. Even if the dust got in the bearings and could somehow slow down the alternator pulley (thereby causing a belt squeek in the alternators vicinity, or just being squeeky bearings), your battery moniter would still get some kind of voltage output from the alt. right? Or is just a "yes its working/no its not working" indication?

Hope any of this may help. Maybe try the compressed air idea stated above.

 

[86cj]

I vote for the air cleaning and maybee even a take apart cleaning as long as no damage occured. The higher output alternaters of todays vehicles have a pretty good fan/ airflow and it just filled your alternator with silt. JMHO though....