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As title says…I’m burning out alternators in my 97 F150 4.2L. I’ve replaced alternator about 4x past 6 mths or so. I’ve owned the truck about 5 yrs now and haven’t had a prob until I replaced the first one. First time I found that the mega fuse was bad. The terminals of the fuse I could move around and fig that was causing the prob. I went few mths until about a 2 weeks ago when the alternator went again. I was leery about the mega fuse again so I changed it again and set it up so there was less tension on the terminals to prevent any breakage again. Put in a used alternator this time due to lack of funds and seemed to work fine.
Since the first time changing mega fuse and alternator, the battery light has not come on but it is on when u first turn key to power. I tried to get both alternators tested but the places I went either didn’t have parts to set it up or the machine wasn’t working.
The one place I went, the old guy @ counter says used to repair them and said could be regulator (which is replaceable), the brushes or the copper rings on the shaft. I took both regulators out (brushes are attached) and started looking at the copper rings on the shaft. I found that there was burn marks on the one ring, in one location on both alternators. One was from a wrecking yard and the other was a rebuilt that I installed a few months back.
What I’m trying to figure out is, why all of a sudden am I going through so many alternators all of a sudden?
Could a battery that’s on it’s way out start causing this?
What’s causing the burn marks on the copper rings of the shaft?Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have limited funds @ the moment and changing alternators is becoming such a pain.
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