Originally Posted by funola

Hey Army, you going off the deep end restoring the inside of an alternator?

Alternators are also wound with enameled wire aka magnet wire.

"Enameled wire is wire (such as magnet wire) coated with a very thin insulating layer. It is used in applications such as winding electric motor coils, speakers and transformers. It is also used in the construction of electromagnets and inductors.

The core material is copper or aluminum, coated with a thin layer of a polyurethane, polyamide, or polyester etc resin - the so-called "enamel". Aluminum is lighter than copper, but has higher resistivity."

Originally Posted by Johnt49

Glyptal is good stuff, but overkill for your application.
Been using this for years. I've built hundreds of starters & alternators over the last 30 years and usually use a parts washer with mineral spirits for cleaning.

Originally Posted by Army

Yes indeed - that's the next one.

This time I'm even going to include some new fangled elctrickery testing with one of them new fangled multimeters...

...the luddite is getting a bit more technical this time as it

Originally Posted by layback40

New bearings needed!! Dont use cheap ones. I think there is still a grade for alt bearings. They spin fast !!
The original varnish is a thermo set product & so should handle most cleaning solvents. Petrol is fine for cleaning it.

Originally Posted by Army

Yeah may be - having had another look at it today I get the feeling that I've got a re-manufactured unit that has had bad bearings before... what I'm saying is that I can not detect any play by hand. When I reassemble it I'll measure it. Thanks for the tips.

Originally Posted by layback40

If you are not replacing the alt bearings when its apart, best at least, if you can prize one of the covers off without damaging each one & add some grease to the bearings.