So, my daughter calls me...
 

She says, "dad, the car is screeching loud, and the battery light is on"

I asked her the engine temp, and she said still on 80, so I said, park the car open the hood and check if the fan is turning...
It wasnt, so I told her to get mom to pick her up and get some new continental belts from napa...

I got there to check what was wrong, and the alternator is seized tight.

Belt remains crispy...
Pulled it off, and pulled the spare GM 6.5 alt from my suburban and I'm now looking for a place to get the pulleys swapped...

Napa had the alternator harness on the shelf, so time to convert her to a 115amp gm alternator...

Winter monday car repair... what fun....

There goes my Christmas money! Hope no one is expecting presents from me. He was unbolting the old alternator and he said “why am I doing this? You do it! Be careful, don’t drop the nut.” Of course I dropped it. Just one week ago I drove up and down the mountain to Cullowhee and back. Thank goodness this happened close to home.

Is this the 87 300TD we’ve both owned? If so I had previously replaced the alternator with one from a 90 or 91 300E from PAP. So I have replaced the harness from the stock one. Also since the original alt was still good I gave it to you with all the cache of parts in the back.

Is it snowing in NC like it is in SC ? .

I remember my farm fun in New Hampshire in the 1960's fixing clapped out beaters in the snow.....

You have my sympathy .

Obviously you taught your daughter well, she called instead of driving it to junk trying to make it home .

No, it is her 84 SD.

We tried using the GM alternator, but I have the internal fan version, and the pulley doesnt clear the housing... so... we drove to my shop and took one of another SD...

It was VERY late at this point, so we turned in.

Install to begin shortly...

Yeah, she's a good egg.

It snowed Sunday, but dried up yesterday.

I was only a mile from home when the belts (and the alternator) blew but I needed to stop at the gas station anyway. Dad just installed an alternator he had from a parts car. He didn’t tighten the last bolt on the power steering pump because it couldn’t be reached with the tools he had on hand. I think it will get me to work and back.

Typical that it happens right now in the middle of winter.

That's why I moved to southern california. No winter means no parts failing when the weather is crappy :D

Good kid ! .

I hope my grand daughter (5) and grand son (1 month) grow uo to have good common sense like you did .

-Nate

you got lucky. Alternator seized on daughters '87 300D. Ripped the power steering pump off its mounts. Turns out that is a rare pump. Only used on that year and model. Bunch of money later, she was back on the road. Glad to hear it all worked out for you two.

? Wouldn't an alternator with bad enough bearings to seize make a loud racket long before it seized up solid ? .

She is taking her old alt to a rebuild to see if repairable.
They can tell us what failed. I dont think the bearings seized, I think the coil separated, there isnt any heat stress on anything...

When my alternator blew up, it was simply a pulley that worked loose, jammed and shredded the belt.

I could have tightened the pulley and moved on, but I decided to swap in a newer Mercedes 90 amp alternator with a clutched pulley from INA. No problems since :D

Say WHAT ?
 

A clutched pulley on an alternator ?! .

Why ? .

On serpentine belt systems, a clutched pulley smooths the pulses from the alternator mass.