OK maybe that was a little excessive but this is how the conversation went. The family was busy last weekend so I opted to remove the alternator off the truck and see if I could figure out why it didn't work. It smelled like a 1970 VW Bug I had once after a friend thought it would be funny to turn the ignition on while I was tucked up in the trunk area rewiring the dash. I've since learned to always disconnect the battery when working on electrics. To say that memory is burned into my head is an understatement. Anyway, I took it all apart and found it was completely fried. Only the stator and rotor tested fine and everything else was melted or failed testing. I think there must have been a small fire in there but who knows. It was a working truck that spent it's entire life working wheat fields and it was full of dirt and debris. At dinner that night we are sitting around the table talking about the day and I'm telling my son about the alternator and jokingly said "maybe I'll rebuild it". I say jokingly because I'm a realist and honestly a new alternator is cheaper than rebuilding one after all the time is spent bead-blasting, cleaning, prep for paint, painting, checking components, and rebuilding it. Plus it wasn't original to the truck. Any other day I would have just bought a new one as this was a 10si and readily available. Anyway my son says "Dad you are going to Electrocute yourself!" and everyone got a really good laugh out of it. I thought about that and decided that this entire project was about passing on some knowledge and filling up the dump with more alternators that are serviceable didn't feel like a good lesson. So I told him "Son you are absolutely right. Why should I risk my life for an alternator? I think you should rebuild it" and so starts the project.
We took it down to bare bones, bead blasted it, painted it, replaced the bearings and all the internals, I showed him how to use a meter and test all the components, and we put it back together upgrading it to a one wire at the same time. He learned why it's impossible to get electrocuted from a alternator sitting on a counter and how the entire deal worked. We even saved a little space in the landfill. Was it worth it? Financially no, but I've got a memory with my kid I would not be able to buy otherwise. Anyway all that is left is to install it and build the wire to the battery terminal on the starter. and I'll include a ground strap for good measure as the thing is now painted. I've included some pics.
