I have a confession to make.

When I bought a new engine a few years ago, it came with a new alternator. I was working with my mechanic on the installation, and was attaching the field wire to the alternator -- and sheared the protruding bolt! After 60 years building countless homebrew projects as an amateur radio operator, several as a military radar technician, and repairing all sorts of electronic, electrical, and automotive products, I know how tight to torque a #6 or #8 nut! And never before in my life have I ever overtightened one enough to shear it. I disassembled the alternator to see if the bolt could easily be replaced, but it was a very strange custom bolt that served other functions internally. We went to reassemble it, but neither of us could overcome the challenge of holding some items in place while putting the cover on -- it apparently required a specialized jig or some trick we couldn't figure out. We ended up sending the pieces to a rebuilder who replaced the bolt and reassembled it.

That was very humbling. Many years ago I had an alternator problem in my '61 Dodge, disassembled it, located a shorted diode, got a replacement, and managed to extract and replace the pressed-in diode. The alternator ran flawlessly for many years after that. But after the experience with this alternator, I'm not going to mess with this one.

But this caused me to recall the experience, and I'll try to dig up the name of that rebuilder. He did a good and prompt job for what I recall was a reasonable price.

Roy

States where I've landed my 150
[Linked Image from eznec.com]