I got an alternator earlier this yir from Advans Auto and the shaft wuz bent rite outa the box and the ball bearing wuz grumbly. I didnt bother installing it.
Insted, I looted the commutator brushez and returned it. Unfortunately, they were crap and didnt last long. Fortunately, I hav been driving very little due to the pandemic, so ordered a Tuff Stuff alternator for 260 buks and it showed up befor I needed to do a grosery run.
I wuz not happy to find that it had the same junk commutator brushez that are in the 60$ chain store units (probably from Cardone). But it wuznt difficult to ad brass sleevz to them to fit the brush properly and provide heat rezistans.
An interesting thing about the Tuff Stuff iz that they are a 1 wire setup that haz the voltaj regulator bilt into the casing. I wuz skeptical, but it worked!
Unfortunately agen, not for long. Today wen I started it up, no electronz flowing out uv it. I put my spare battery in the trunk, but manajd to do my shopping and get home without needing it. I counted 8 starts and about 20 milez uv driving. Oddly, the voltaj stayed between 11.6 and 11.8 the entire trip, so now I'm wondering if maybe the connection to the voltmeter iz comprimized in sum way and the alternator iz fine.
Anybody hav sum experiens with the Tuff Stuff brand?
I plugged the standard firewall mounted voltaj regulator into the alternator today. That fixed the problem.
I'd left the orijinal wirez, so it wuznt too much uv a hassle. Altho the diagraam supplied by Tuff Stuff showz the top terminal az - , I took the precaution uv insulating it from the screw bekuz the wire goez to the lower rite terminal on the regulator. Didnt want to find out the smokey way that its regulated +.
A little correction to the 1st post: their v regulator iznt bilt into the case, its a small box attached to the back.
