<VV> Re: ALTERNATORS

[JVHRoberts at aol.com]

Anyone still in service has been upgraded. The rear bearing is now wider, and 
higher capacity. The other premature failure was the rectifier, not the 
regulator, also been fixed on anything new or rebuilt recently. 
If you're REALLY worried about it, get one of the Iceberg versions of this. 
It has all the beefed up stuff. 
When I did the one on my Fiero, I got the Iceberg unit. $109. 105 amps. 
Bulletproof. Yes, they use a serpentine belt, but I think, judging by the looks of 
it, the Corvair pulley and fan should go right in in its place. 
The reason I like these alternators is they exceptional idle output, (no dim 
lights, slow wipers, etc. at idle) their small size and light weight, and the 
fact the idiot light has a dedicated digital output. No dim charge lights! 

John

In a message dated 4/13/2005 10:40:55 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
kaczmarek at charter.net writes:
guys
if we are talking about the GM series CS alternator as it was in the 
mid-late 90's, be thankful it isn't adaptable. One of the worst engineered 
designs ever. Rear bearing would fall apart from a hard stare. sold hundreds 
of rebuilts, most of which also had the rear bearing self destruct in any 
where from 10 minutes to 20K miles of run time.

Regulator was another useless piece of garbage, #2 reason for replacement 
with a rebuilt.

Now my wife's alero has a CS (03 model), and it has run flawlessly for 70K 
miles, so I imagine there has been some "re" engineering done to it. But 
aren't the front shafts designed for the deeper, thicker serpentine belt 
pulley??  could it be effectively cut down for a V belt pulley??