FJ40 I call Shipwreck

[DanStokes]

The last shot at the cafe looked more my speed. Well, it would if it was, say, 70*F.

All my silliness aside, I'm glad you're having fun with it. THAT'S the whole idea.

Dan

[Loren]

Looks too dang cold, and what's the deal w/ alternators? (I did go through five in a year-and-a-half w/ my TBI 350 truck, bearings or electronics or both, along w/ other bizarre issues.)

That said, what a gorgeous day, and the most capable vehicle to be up there in.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Why I like cold rather then warm weather:

1) no mud
2) no dust
3) there are only so many layers one can take off before taste and law get involved.
4) I look good in wool.

[silver_bullet]

Tu no hablo, but your alternator looked "reduce power" up in the Spanish/English translator...

[SuperBuickGuy]

decisions.... so I finally got an answer from Howell - 10 degrees is what they recommend. It'll be awesome when I get another timing light; my craftsman hasn't been that awesome, but it got decidedly worse when I burned the clamp (yeah, plastic clamp).

in talking with Howell's tech (for those of you counting, email before christmas asking the question along with a promise to respond to my email by the 27th - I gave up and called them today). it's another $250 to get a chip burned by them.... for an archaic system. Adding it up, $100 for the swap meet special, $325 for the wire harness, $250 for another chip.... I'm thinking it's beyond time to simply by a(nother) holley efi system. I had an EZ system, sold it because it couldn't handle the cam that was in my Corvette.... now they have a stand-alone system that takes the feedback I (and others) gave them for less then $1000.... I suspect I can sell this system (or what's left) and get my money back - though it came with so many parts that even if I keep it, it will be useful in the future as parts.

But what utterly killed it for Howells is their terrible customer service. I'll circle back to this.

The alternator was bad, more specifically the rectifier. According to the alternator guy I hit the pulley with a hammer and caused all the problems.... only problem is it didn't happen. There are days when I wished I lived the exciting life alleged by others.

Which circles back to. if the rectifier was bad, that could be one of the reasons I kept killing Modules. Anyone want to guess what's I'm not doing with the 'fixed' version of this alternator?

Or say screw it and put the diesel and automatic transmission in here....

[silver_bullet]

Not going to reinstall the alleged offending alternator?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Nope, it sits on the shelf. So I went to pick it up yesterday and the builder claimed that a dent on the pulley cause the regulator to fail. Only a couple problems with that. 1st, there were wear marks where the belt had worn off the paint on the dent.... oh, and the paint was still intact at the impact point. I honestly don't get it - schmidt happens and regulators fail, no big deal. But now it is a big deal because this guy is making excuses that aren't supported by the evidence.... where I'd continue buying from him if he was honest; now I can't buy from or recommend him to others. Not just that, the guy who recommended him is reconsidering using him... all for a failed regulator that was most likely not his fault.

A lot of people read this across the 'net, never comment and it's to them I say this - if you think honesty is expensive, wait until you see what it costs to be thought dishonest.

[silver_bullet]

Word of mouth can be your best advertiser or your worst detractor...the first statement in small business class ...

[hauen]

When my Dad would hire a new mechanic he'd give them a little pep talk, "If you do a good job someone will tell 2 people, but if you do a bad one they'll tell 10. I can't afford you to do a bad job."

[Beagle]

When my Dad would hire a new mechanic he'd give them a little pep talk, "If you do a good job someone will tell 2 people, but if you do a bad one they'll tell 10. I can't afford you to do a bad job."

I had a lot of customers come in when I was a kid in retail service because their crappy neighbor couldn't possibly be right and our service couldn't possibly be that bad. Free advertisement and all attention is good attention.

Not that it applies here, but I've seen it work both ways.

Sorry you are having problems SBG - might look into your GM parts counter and rebuild it yourself? Not much to them.

[Deaf Bob]

A dent in the pulley killed the alt?
Find that hard to believe... Have had 2 groove alts get the outer groove mashed into the inner groove and still charge on cars we run alts.. Not very often but a few times we have run them.. 3 fans plus starting often needs some help..
Some stuff is fragile like glass, other times it keeps on ticking..

[SuperBuickGuy]

He trash talked the parts I have to rebuild an alternator. the only thing I can figure is he remembers that and doesn't want to admit that his parts were crap.

[Beagle]

not trying to beat this dead horse, but... it's been a while. How complicated have these things become? Rectifier bridge and a diode trio from a bag with a GM DELCO label should go a lot of hours as I remember it. Looks something like this:

[SuperBuickGuy]

I cleaned it, and now the alternator doesn't work again.... that said, I'm not 100% sure this alternator was good in the beginning... I'll put the other on tomorrow night. That said, there will be questions of friends about why.... I'm seriously considering running the charging wire back to the battery or running a one-wire and dealing with its no-charge-at-low-rpm issues....


(random picture)

so in other news, I added some dash lights

[DanStokes]

A bright idea! (Couldn't help myself)

Dan