Hey,

I have an alternator that's making a lot of whining noise constantly. I see at Advanced I can get a bearing instead of alternator. The fact that the alternator is charging fine tells me only the bearing needs replacing. How hard is it to replace a bearing on the alternator?

Thanks,
-G

 

Remove nut and pully. Remove 4 thru bolts from back half. Separate two halves, trying to push shaft thru bearing leaving rotor in stator and back half. If the rotor comes out with the front case, you will need to secure the brushes with paper clips or wd40 draws.
If the shaft is stubborn in the bearing, start the nut back on the threads and tap the shaft out with a hammer.

 

Clean the rear bearing with some cleaner and regrease as well. The front bearing has a retainer with 3 bolts.

 

not hard if you have a impact gun
1. remove pulley (impact gun)
2. remove 4 thrubolts that attach SRE & DE together 8mm
3. use medium flathead screwdriver in hole where thubolt was to gently pry DE housing only up.make sure the rotor does not move while doing this as you will break the brushes.
4.remove 3-4 philips head screws from bearing retainer knock bearing out with hammer and drift punch.
5. install new bearing with green loctite on outter race DO NOT HIT THE INSIDE OF THE BEARING OR RUBBER SEAL WITH HAMMER use a press or 2 blocks of wood.
6 reassemble same as came apart.

 

cool, sounds pretty easy. Ordering bearing. I'll let you all know how it turns out when I do it. I was worried I'd need a press to get it in/out but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Thanks for the detailed responses!

-G

 

Looks like the rear bearing is also ball bearing. Might replace it and brushes while you're in there.

 

The only bearing I'm replacing is the front bearing behind the pulley. Perhaps it is the rear bearing that's making the noise. If so, I guess I'd just wasted $20 and will have to buy a new alternator because I have no plans on doing a full rebuild of the alternator. I just wanna get rid of the noise and worn part(which I'm hoping is the part I'm replacing).

-G

 

My alternator bearing started making noise like that. Two days later it failed. Ended up replacing the alternator, which wasn't fun to do in that car, or any other fwd transverse V-6 for that matter.

 

Replace both bearings while you have it apart, they're cheap.
Inspect the brushes, replace them if they're worn.

Clean, reassemble and enjoy your rebuilt alty.