Tech Tips want to bring up is a re-visit to the Ford TAR (internally regu- know, the one that p * catches fire. This is an alternator that runs hot, no pun intended, and par- When we send one of these out, we always supply a plastic turbine fan with it. The reason is, the turbine fan draws steel one and the alternator will run cooler. Recently we have had a number installed. We seldom supply the alter- nator with a pulley, and expect the in- staller to use the one off the old alter- changed for the steel one. I firmly be- lieve that to use the steel fan will shorten the life of the alternator compared to I am now handling the Delphi/ Delcor battery, which is the same as that handled by GM and AC Delco. aslightly different fashion than the stan- dard battery. If the customer runs down badly or completely flattens it be charged for 15 to 20 minutes and then load tested—it will fail every time. The battery will require a slow charge load tested. Regardless of the state of discharge, these batteries will require a longer, slower recharge than the con- The first thing I <) lated) alternator. You ticularly when it’s under heavy loads. considerably more air than the O0EM of cores returned with our turbine fan nator, but we don’t want the fan using the turbine one. These batteries need to be handled in (below 10 volts), the battery cannot for about two hours before it can be ventional battery. My friend in Oakville reports tak- ing the following off the Internet from aU.S. Chrysler dealer looking for help. The vehicle was a 1995 Grand Chero- kee with a 4.0L engine. The problem was that the starter stayed engaged intermittently. The first step was to R & R the starter—the problem remained. The flywheel was inspected and replaced along with the torque converter be- cause the teeth looked burred, and the problem remained. The ignition switch was checked and found OK, but re- placed anyway, and the problem re- mained. The flywheel run out was found to be .008 inches, the crank- shaft end play was found to be .003 inches. The oil pan was removed and the thrust bearing checked and found OK, and the problem remained. One tech found that voltage was still present at the switch terminal of the starter once the key was released, and believed it was from the starter generating cur- rent during cranking, but didn’t have another starter to check it against. They did notice, when the transmission was removed to change the flywheel, that the rear cam plug looked new as did the front pump assembly. Possibly they weren’t being told the whole story! The problem was found to be a high voltage drop caused by a cor- roded ground wire to the starter relay which caused the relay to be slow in releasing. At times it would also keep the starter engaged. I wonder how big this bill was, who paid it, and where the first group of techs are working now. One of my customers sent me an alternator off a late model Chrysler product which had a round plug with two terminals instead of the usual two small posts to attach wires to. In spite FEBRUARY, 2000 of looking like all the other internally regulated Nippondenso alternators that use this round plug, this alternator is still externally regulated by the com- puter and the terminals in the round plug are f1 and f2 (field 1 and field 2). With the plug disconnected, KOEO, one wire will be live and the second wire is the path to the computer. Recently we have had several Mitsubishi alternators brought in with the complaint that they overcharge at 15 volts. If one of these alternators appears to regulate at 15 volts, the problem is probably in the second wire in the regulator plug. One wire is “light” and the second is “sense.” The sense wire must have battery voltage when the engine is running or the alternator will regulate at about 15 volts. If the voltage is higher than 15 volts or fluc- tuates with the rpm, then the alternator is probably bad. A Chrysler TSB (no. 08-53-94) refers to a possible “no crank” condi- tion on 1994 to 1995 Caravans caused by a poorly seated main battery cable at the starter. This can be cured by removing some of the insulation right at the starter/cable connection which will allow the cable to mate correctly with the solenoid terminal. On the 1992 to 1995 Eagle Sum- mit there is a different starter used on some of the manual transmission cars than on the automatics. The difference is in the length of the nose cone. Be sure to visually compare what you are going to try and install with what came out of the car. In addition, verify the OEM numbers if at all possible. John Jervelund is owner of Brantford Starter Alternator, Brantford, Ontario. Page 1 of 1