85fortheDrive

The plastic shroud/intake hose portion of our alternators gets fastened to the electrical part of the alternator with a thin rubber gasket in between. Given what I've seen of the flimsiness of this gasket, I have to believe that water can sometimes seep into the electrical portion of the alternator.

If this happens, could their be voltage spikes? I'm still trying to put a finger on some newly-returned, but chronic voltage irregularities. They always seem more likely to happen when it's wet outside, so I'm going to call the rain in for questioning. But I'd like to know what the possible problems could be if either or both of the electrical leads in the alternator got wet.

Thanks and Peace,
Tim

P.S. There is a brown wire that offshoots from the wiring harness just before it connects to the alternator. This brown wire heads to the oil pan and is some type of gauge. This wire is in BAD shape on our car. Could that cause voltage fluctuations?

heinrich

I've had that happen in heavy rain (I mean a downpour) when I had a leaky hose there, and it caused the car to lurch terribly! Intermittent power loss.

michael j wright

Brown wire to oil pan sounds like the one going to level sensor.

Alan

The alternator is likely to get wet anyway from wet weather splashes... I wouldn't worry about it that much...

Alan

FBIII

The front of the alternator where the pulley and fan is, is open for ventilation. Water is much more likely to enter there as it faces the front of the car. You'd have to assume its designed to tolerate water.

123quattro

I have had them get completely filled with water. 10 minutes later they work fine again.

85fortheDrive

---> Oh, like you know anything about electical systems... (Thanks for all your help past and present, by the way.)

---> Yep, but the combination of electrical stuff and water just seems like a bad mix. I gotta believe the plastic shroud/intake comes with a little gasket to make sure no DEBRIS gets in the unit, which could interrupt the rotor spinning.

---> Yep, that's right. Mine is very brittle and I'd like to repair it by soldering a replacement section. Soldering under the car is not a real simple task, however, so I'm wondering if I can detach that section of the wiring harness, pull it up through the engine compartment, and do the surgery from above...?

Thanks everyone!

Alan

Remember that 95% of automotive alternators live al fresco with no shroud, or venting tube and are often mounted low - they rely on the int/ext fans to keep themselves clean enough... they generally last remarkably well considering...

The shroud and hose is primarily a cooling thing - the alternator pumps air forward - so sucks from the back which is near the exhaust manifold - the shroud and hose feed relatively much cooler airt from the fender location and the snorkel hose routing is desgned to keep the intake dry and very debris free

So I'd say the shroud seal is primarily to keep the hot air out

Alan

michael j wright

---> Yep, that's right. Mine is very brittle and I'd like to repair it by soldering a replacement section. Soldering under the car is not a real simple task, however, so I'm wondering if I can detach that section of the wiring harness, pull it up through the engine compartment, and do the surgery from above...?

Thanks everyone![/QUOTE]

Very doubtfull, the harness that it runs through is a real PITA and would be very hard to pull the wire out of-let alone repair and the re-run through the loom. You can either repair on bottom end, or run new wire from 14 pin connecter along out side of harness down to level sensor, or if you want to do the job right, get a new harness and replace the whole thing(recomened) as if one wire is hard and brittle, so are the rest.