Dissassembling My Alternator For Painting.

[BigJohnny]

I just got my 240A/165A Iraggi Amputator the other day, and as happy as I was with it, I'm not the type of person to leave something as it is. This is the first time I've ever really done anything with an alternator, but I'm a skilled person that gets bored easily, and likes doing things myself, I also had a chance to learn a little bit about alternators (Namely my own should I ever need to fix it.) which is another bonus for me.

I thought the original colour looked a little bit boring, especially since I have plans of doing much more with my car over the years, and sprucing up my engine compartment, So I decided that a paint job would be in order.

Doing a little bit of searching I found an excellent exploded diagram of my Ford 3G alternator which made the process much more simple.

Here I will document the process as best I can.

As you can see the cases on these are made quickly, and cheaply, and theres no reason not to do it that way. But why pay for chrome and paint when you can do it yourself. The surface is rough and there is a lot of "flash" left over from the casting process. Generally just a rough look, especially in the holes on the front case.

The best way I would guess to sand and paint one of these is to disassemble the unit, and have access to nothing but the front and rear case. No overspray, no odd taping or weird looking paint jobs, just a case to worry about, nothing else.

Taking one of these apart is easier said than done, but a new unit should come apart fairly easily. An old one I would expect to have issues with stuff being stuck.

TAKE YOUR TIME, BE CAREFUL, DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING AND ABOVE ALL ELSE BE PATIENT, BEING CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK ANYTHING TAKES TIME

The first thing to do is to remove the voltage regular on the back. This is secured with 4 Torx screws, If you don't have a set or know what these are, press the back button and don't even attempt this. You will only want to unscrew the 4 screws on the 4 corners of the VR. do not remove the two in the middle.

Once the screws are out the voltage regular and brush assembly should come out without any problems, just remove it carefully ensuring that it doesn't get caught on anything. If it doesn't come out easily don't force it, just look closely and see if it's catching on anything.

The next thing to remove is the battery terminal extension. Remove the red cap, unscrew the nut holding it on, and pull the unit off. Again this should come off without too much difficulty at all.

Now that this is done, the case is ready to come apart. There are 3 screws holding the alternator together. Remove these and the case is ready to come apart. There are 3 parts to the case, the rear case, the rectifier(the smaller black frame) and the front case. Using a flat screwdriver, preferably a larger one, GENTLY pry the rear case apart from the rectifier by sticking the screwdriver in between the bolt mounts.

Apply gentle amounts of pressure, rotating between each of the 3 bolt tabs. Work at it gently and you will feel it starting to come apart. The only thing holding it on at this point is the bearing on the back of the rotor, getting angry and trying to get it apart quicker will result in bearing damage.

Once the rear case is off, it will look like this. I've already done a little bit of grinding and sanding on mine.

The next part is the hardest. The stator will need to be removed before the rotor can come out. The rectifier is mounted to the stator by nothing more than the solder points. Trying to remove the stator by prying on the rectifier like we did for the rear case, will crack those wires, damage the solder connections, and generally ruin your alternator.

In order to remove the stator, you will need to heat up the case using a heat gun (A hair dryer isn't going to do it here) the case will need to be hot enough that you need gloves to hold on to it, but not hot enough to destroy or melt anything. This way the outer case will be hot, and expand to let the stator come out more easily.

Once the case is hot (and you have put your gloves on) support the rectifier/stator assembly with one hand, and gently bang the main mounting tabs on the front case against a wooden desk/bench etc. This is going to take some time but eventually the stator will become dislodged and start sliding out. One trick to make holding it easier is to take one of the long screws that you took out earlier, and screw it into the hole opposite the big mounting tabs your banging on, backwards. This way you can grab on to the screw while banging the case to allow the stator to fall out more evenly.

After a good 30 minutes of this, my stator finally came out. (As seen in the image above as well)

Now that the stator is out, you can remove the rotor. This is seemingly difficult, or near impossible at this point, but surprisingly using an impact gun and holding the pulley with your hand worked without issue for me. You do NOT want to grab the pulley using any kind of tool or vice, you will damage it. A rubber strap wrench MIGHT work, I'm not sure.

This is a regular threaded nut, it unscrews to the left like everything else.

DISCLAIMER START:

This is not the kind of thing you should do if you;

- are not comfortable using tools this powerful.

- are not strong enough to handle strong tools.

- don't have experience using power tools.

This is dangerous, and could result in a broken wrist, or other injuries, if you don't know what to expect and don't know what your are doing. I won't take responsibility for you trying to do something beyond your capabilities.

DISCLAIMER END

Once the pulley is removed, the rotor should come out fairly easily. To remove the front bearing you will need to remove the 3 screws in the bearing retaining clip, and take the clip out. Then the bearing should come right out.

What you should be looking at now should be a pile of parts resembling the pictures below. Keep in mind my voltage regulator has the brush assembly removed. Unless you are replacing yours there is no need to remove them from the VR.

Now that its all apart, It's not only much easier to clean up, it's a hell of a lot easier to paint.

To be continued.....

[BigJohnny]

Anybody know what colour I should paint this?

My car is green, But I eventually want to have it painted a pearl blue or something similar....blue anyway.

Im not sure what I will be doing with my engine bay, but wiring and stuff will probably be blue where I can manage it. the engine block will eventually be painted as well.

For my alternator I was considering painting the front and back red, leaving the rectifier black. Then on the front, the 3 raised parts leading to the center I was going to do black.

the red will be powder painted on.

[Torres]

you got it lucky. my rectifier is like...on the outside of the case with a little black casing around it. it's all soldered together so there's no coming apart. makes me sad cuz i cant get it off and that's what i need to replace lol.

if you're gonna paint the car blue, i'd just paint it blue unless you dont mind taking it back out and apart to repaint

[BigJohnny]

My rectifier is the same way, if i understand what your saying.

Take a look at mine, the rectifier is soldered on to the stator. the only way to get it out is to remove the stator, and thats the hard thing to remove. You could also just de-solder it and try a different approach to remove the stator.

Again, I haven't seen yours, so it could actually be a pain in the ass or impossible.

[Guest Just_Rob]

Im not usuall one to pick things apart, but you have a nice 130 amp core there... Stock stator/rectifier combo, the slipring wasnt even turned, used OEM voltage regulator etc, etc.. Please, please, PLEASE tell me you didnt pay normal price for that...

[BigJohnny]

thats supposed to be a 240A from Iraggi..... and it cost me $525 CAD.... how can you tell its 130A?

I took this and got it tested, though the RPM gauge on the machine was broken it got to 130A before the belt started slipping.

the stock alt on these cars is 130A ...... Ford 3G.

[Torres]

i see what you're sayin. and i just noticed you didnt take it apart from everything else. i saw one where it just screwed off. i was pissed cuz i ordered a rectifier (which i have to return now) and didnt know everything that was involved in replacing em. everyone made it sound so easy i couldnt even get my casing off tho on either side. unless i just wasnt trying hard enough. just didnt wanna F somethin up since it was my good alt that i want fixed

...and i hope you didnt get ripped off on yours

[BigJohnny]

so do I.... so help me god I will drive to TN and tear Dom a new one in person. It was advertised as a 240A alternator, it SHOULD be brand new, and thats what I paid for, if thats not what I got, then Im going to have some serious problems.

as for yours, the parts are pretty snug. You need patience, and just keep prying that rear one off, ear by ear. unless you desolder the rectifier the only way to get it (and the rotor) out is to get the stator out, and like i mentioned this involves heating the case quite a bit and gently but firmly slamming the case on its main mounting ears to let the stator "fall out"

[Torres]

i really dont think i have the necessary tools to de-solder it out. so i think i'm just gonna send it back to ohio gen and let them fix it

[Guest Just_Rob]

so do I.... so help me god I will drive to TN and tear Dom a new one in person. It was advertised as a 240A alternator, it SHOULD be brand new, and thats what I paid for, if thats not what I got, then Im going to have some serious problems.

as for yours, the parts are pretty snug. You need patience, and just keep prying that rear one off, ear by ear. unless you desolder the rectifier the only way to get it (and the rotor) out is to get the stator out, and like i mentioned this involves heating the case quite a bit and gently but firmly slamming the case on its main mounting ears to let the stator "fall out"

Sorry man, I hate to break it to you, that alternator is not brand new and if not 100%, 99.9% used. $525, all I'm going to say is ouch.. Anyone who knows anything about building alternators will tell you the exact same thing too about the parts..

Your right on with your teardown procedures though, we use a torch for most of the alternators that have captured stators. It heats the aluminum up much faster.. 3G & 6G Fords come apart really easy, 4G's are the PITA..