[DeTomaso] Alternator blues....

[Stephen]

The GM 1-wire on my XKE died after about 6 months, replaced it and been fine since.  Also have one on our Pantera, with about 5,000 miles, everything fine so far.  I will comment that, given the lack of air flow when the car is sitting still, I suspect my added cooling fan might help a little, but heck, the alternator is not right above the exhaust manifold - would not think it would get that warm unless it has too small a built-in fan...  As I recall there were two options when I bought our 1 wire from Napa - one with a fan that looked a lot nicer.

Stephen Nelson  5332



-----Original Message-----
From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com] On Behalf Of Himes, Terry (397C)
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2016 8:15 AM
To: Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com>; MikeLDrew at aol.com; detomaso at server.detomasolist.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Alternator blues....

Ditto.  I put in 2 rebuilt units and they both failed.  Finally bought a new one.
No problem since.


"A Purple Heart proves you were smart enough to hatch a plan,  stupid enough to try it and lucky enough to survive!"

Terry W. Himes
JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Dawn Spacecraft Team
Rosetta Sequence Team Lead
Phone: (818) 393-6261
Cell:     (818) 653-8213
Fax:     (818) 393-3147
thimes at jpl.nasa.gov<mailto:thimes at jpl.nasa.gov>
🇺🇸

From: DeTomaso <detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com<mailto:detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com>> on behalf of Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com<mailto:julian_kift at hotmail.com>>
Date: Monday, October 3, 2016 6:57 AM
To: "MikeLDrew at aol.com<mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com>" <MikeLDrew at aol.com<mailto:MikeLDrew at aol.com>>, "detomaso at server.detomasolist.com<mailto:detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>" <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com<mailto:detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Alternator blues....

Mike,


I hate chasing these type of electrical problems, but here's some thoughts;


i) Battery going bad (how old is it?), requiring the alternator to have to constantly charge

ii) Some alternator re builders are notorious for units failing, over a 50% failure rate is not uncommon. I had a similar issue with my GT40; on the third alternator we switched to a higher amp 'new' unit and never had a problem since.

iii) It could also be an intermittent short or bad ground

Julian
________________________________
From: DeTomaso <detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com<mailto:detomaso-bounces at server.detomasolist.com>> on behalf of Mike Drew via DeTomaso <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com<mailto:detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>>
Sent: Sunday, October 2, 2016 9:11 PM
To: detomaso at server.detomasolist.com<mailto:detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
Subject: [DeTomaso] Alternator blues....

Hi guys,

Just got home from a terrific weekend in the Sierra foothills; 24 Panteras
(of the 36 scheduled) took part in the Niello concours at Serrano.   It
heaved down with rain for a very brief period, but that rain then turned to snow which kept the large Reno/Tahoe contingent from braving the summit.
Still, a great time was had by all who attended, and we drove home in splendid sunshine.

We were driving in Lori's Pantera, which has a flat firewall kit and uses a
GM alternator with built-in regulator.   She drove the car to Vegas this
spring, and the alternator failed while we were there.   At first it started
acting erratic, with the amp needle bouncing around, and then finally it quit
and just showed a partial discharge.   Testing at the battery revealed it
was doing nothing at that point.   We replaced it with another one, which did
exactly the same thing and failed about 50 miles from home.

We replaced THAT one, and the third one has worked fine until today.   But
it probably only has about 250 miles on it or so.   On the way home, once
again, I noticed the ammeter needle behaving erratically, then it quit and showed partial discharge for many miles, then briefly came back to life and showed a very strong charge (since we had been running on battery power for awhile), then discharged again.

Methinks the problem is not simply that alternators are failing, but rather
that there is some sort of fault in the electrical system.   As electrons
are far from my strong suit, I hesitate to start diving it to it blindly.

What say all of you?

FWIW we've got a spare alternator we will be installing tomorrow, which almost assuredly will work just fine...for awhile anyway????

Mike