Dead Alt.? Need Help ASAP, Please!

[Phalcon51]

I took the family on a road rally tonight (where we placed 2nd in the beginner class, thank you very much) and on the way home the car died. About an hour and a half before, I noticed that the charge lite was on, but it went out within a minute of so of my taking notice of it. I'm not sure when it came on, but I don't think it could've been more than about a minute or two before. Everything seemed fine after that. We stopped for food, and afterwards the starter seemed just a tad slow, but it fired and off we went. About 10 minutes later on the freeway, I noticed that my ABS light had come on, followed a minute or so later by the failed lamp indicator. I decided to pull off and see what was going on, and as I was pulling off the ramp, I noticed the lights getting dimmer and dimmer. Near the bottom of the ramp, the engine quit and that was it. Enough power to light the courtesy lamps when a door in opened, but otherwise nothing. Luckily, one of the other rally-goers came upon us and helped me move the car to a safe place and then went about 70 miles out of his way to take us home, arriving about 1:30 am. Certainly restored my faith in the basic goodness of people. Anyhow, I need to go out there tomorrow and try to get it running and I need to know the following:

What tools will I need to R&R the Alternator, the belt, and the battery?

Is there any likelyhood that it's just the regulator, and can it be replaced separately?

I don't know whether I've got a Bosch or Valeo alt. All I can remember is that I think it had the pulley fan and that the plug on the back was held in place by a round spring-wire strap. Does that help to identify it one way or the other?

TIA for any help,

Gary

[J.HIDALGO]

or one from another car. At least it will take you home. You don't mention what model but, probably the brushes of your voltage regulator are bad. Just take a screw driver (to remove the regulator) to remove a couple of screws from the back of alternator. The battery, you can remove even with plyers. As far as the belt, just check if it is tight. If it is not, that may be your problem.Tools for the belt? Depends on the model...
Good luck! :p

I just had simular problem. Was my "brush pack" as earlier poster stated, philips screw driver is all that's needed, pack is on back of alternator. Tight fit under car though and not sure if you can reach from top. Might need a floor jack.

Brush pack for mycar was about $60, some say should replace whole alternator because brushes probably went bad due to bearing or other wear related issue, I had 120,000 miles and have had no problem since replacing brush pack.

Joel