gandy
Well-Known Member
That certainly sounds like them!
You were right on the money with the brushes and slip rings. After cleaning these up the warning light works and the alternator charges. I need to replace the brushes because they're quite worn, and there's a bit of pitting on one of the slip rings so I'll give that a smooth out.
However it looks like the regulator may be goosed, because the charge voltage is higher than I like, going well over 14.5V at a fast idle when the batteries are fully charged. I think I've convinced myself that poor connection at the slip rings couldn't cause an overcharge. So if that's the case I guess I need a new regulator as well.
I have a new alternator from Ebay, but I've seen reports that these cheap generic alternators might not be the best quality, so I want to fix the original one if only to keep it as a spare.
