taking apart alternator to paint question

Very easy to do!
I did one and had the case Ceramic coated. Then I bought a chrome one and had to take it apart and reclock it for use on the 351 with the supercharger.

They have a hole to put like a paper clip in to hold the brushes up when you reinstall them. I'm sure if you do a search you can find a how to.

It is easy, I used a paperclip IIRC to hold the brush in. I had mine powdercoated chrome.

One thing I will mention. I also coated my brackets and found out the alt. grounds to the brackets that are attached to the block. I had to sand down the area the alt. contacts the brackets and were the bracket bolts touch. The alt. would not ground. I tested the issue by running a ground wire from one of the alt. housing bolts and it "jumped" to life. Sanded down those mounting points and no issues.

You can paint an alternator and not have to take it apart. It will not hurt anything. I have done this on many occasions.

I just took mine apart. I broke the first one messing up the "coil" part. (Luckily I had 2.)

My only advice is to take it very slowly when taking it apart.

I took mine apart to paint as well. On a scale of one to ten (one=easy and ten=difficult), I'd say this job is a 2. If you take your time, I'm sure you'll be happy with the results.

Ok, a quick little how to for ya.

If you have an impact, use a 15/16" Socket and take the pulley nut off.

then, if you have a big roll of tape you can turn the alt upside down and the roll of tape will hold it nicely while you work on it.

Find the correct torx bit and remove the regulator. Take a small screwdriver and push the brushes in while you insert a brad nair or paperclip into the hole to retain them and set the regulator aside. Make sure the nut on the main power connection is off, and don't lose it, it's really hard to find a replacement! Now take an 8mm socket and remove the 3 bolts that hold everything together.

Once those are out, lay the alt on it's side and use a hammer on the corner only to tap the rear case off. Swich from corner to corner to walk it off.

Now, DO NOT PRY ON THE ALTERNATOR AT ALL!!! You will pull stator (part with all the wires) from the rectifier assy. This will ruin your alt unless you know how to repair it.

Instead, gently tap the case all the way around a few times. Now, situate the alt so you can get a descent swing at the mounting ears. Hold the rear part and tap the ears going back and forth. This will walk the front case off. It's a good ides to run some of the parts on a wire wheels to clean them up while your case is getting painted/powder coated.

Now for a personal word of advice having dealt with these alts for years:

DO NOT POWDER COAT or CHROME PLATE an alternator! If you coat them with anything accept a thin paint you'll end up creating a barrier where the heat cannot escape. A 3G alt is very efficient by design, and it does so because of it heat dissipation abilities, which are seriously hindered when you coat them with anything.

Trust me on this, we used to get people bringing chrome plated alternators in all the time and they'd say "I only had it a few weeks on there!". And we'd tell them the same. For shows it's ok, but not for daily driven vehicles!

Another good alternative is polishing, if you need help with that I know someone that does it for me locally.

Good luck and don't hesitate to ask questions if you get stuck! I also have a way to pull an alt apart without an impact if you have a bench vise.

No. You can do all the steps except the taking the pulley off as described above. You'll be left with the front case and the pulley still attached.

There will be just enough of the rotor (part inside that spins, some call armature) sticking out the bottom for a vise to grab. don't worry, you're not going to hurt the rotor, chuck it in there nice and tight, the rotor, not the case. Now the rotor is locked in place and you can take a ratchet or breaker bar with a 15/16" socket and remove the nut.

I have also used a standard ratchet to remove the nut and I used a strap wrench to keep the pulley from rotating. It takes some power but it worked for me...

blksn955.o said:

It is easy, I used a paperclip IIRC to hold the brush in. I had mine powdercoated chrome.

One thing I will mention. I also coated my brackets and found out the alt. grounds to the brackets that are attached to the block. I had to sand down the area the alt. contacts the brackets and were the bracket bolts touch. The alt. would not ground. I tested the issue by running a ground wire from one of the alt. housing bolts and it "jumped" to life. Sanded down those mounting points and no issues.

Click to expand...

I had all my brackets "Ceramic coated" and never had any grounding issues.

The_Mustang said:

Ok, a quick little how to for ya.




Now for a personal word of advice having dealt with these alts for years:

DO NOT POWDER COAT or CHROME PLATE an alternator! If you coat them with anything accept a thin paint you'll end up creating a barrier where the heat cannot escape. A 3G alt is very efficient by design, and it does so because of it heat dissipation abilities, which are seriously hindered when you coat them with anything.

Trust me on this, we used to get people bringing chrome plated alternators in all the time and they'd say "I only had it a few weeks on there!". And we'd tell them the same. For shows it's ok, but not for daily driven vehicles!

Click to expand...

Interesting.....I have never had any issues with having one 3G Ceramic coated and having one chrome plated.
Mine are stock output not some high amp one which I'm sure generates more heat also.

Might be how/who coated the parts. Mine were coated and from what I can tell no plugs/patches were used on bolt areas (not complaining the parts look awesome). I wonder if our diff. in brackets has anything to do with it as well?

Once I had a good contact point so the alt. would ground it worked perfectly. Were I got the contact point was by sanding the area were the bracket/alt made contact. Then did around the bolt that went from the bracket to the block. Charging has never been better.

I tested non coated new alt. on the bracket and got no charge (or very very low charge in the 4-5v range). I also tested new internals in the coated alt. housing and every test was a fail. When I cleaned the housing mounting points the alt. worked perfectly. Then went home and nothing again. I then cleaned the bracket mounting points and all was good.

Good info!!

I'm glad I had no problems with my coatings and grounding issue's. I never even thought about it...I put it all together and it worked perfect!

This is why I like polished parts so much, not problems with grounding!

polish looks great...can be a PITA to maintain and powdercoat is so easy/low maintenance.

There's two bolts holding the alt in. The top bolt is 13mm and lower is 15mm. And yes, use a 10mm wrench to pull that cable off the back of the alt. Don't forget to disconnect your battery!

anything you would want is in the 1st post...it gives an exploded view of the 3g as well.

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