Driving into work yesterday and alternator was overcharging - looked like 18volts or more on the guage. It's about an hour to get there and in an effort to keep from frying the battery, I ran it with all acessories running, lights etc. When I started it up 30 minutes later, not charging at all, dead in the water. Do you think it's worth having rebuilt, or better yet, think I can go about doing it, or is this a professional's domain? I've immersed myself in all other aspects of Ruby's maintenance/upkeep including head gasket, transmission/clutch replacement, but I've never done anything more than Re&Re alternators in the past.

I don't think it matters, but it's an '87 Runner, SR5, A/C, 22RE/W56.

Thanks
Mike

Rebuilding a n alt isn't that hard. Depends on what's bad and if you can get the parts.

Have not worked on the Toyota alts (yet)), but it may either be worn brushes or a blown regulator. I know my PPW alternator voltage went way high when the external regulator went out. There is a brush repair article in the Tech section here.

Thats what happened when my voltage regulator died. I believe new they are 50 or 60 bucks, but easy to change. I had a old alternator with good regulator but bad brushes. I swapped regulators with this one and made 1 good alt for free.

-Scerb

Check this out, and se if it sounds familiar... I believe all the pics are long gone, but you get the idea as I wrote a step-by-step process as I thought through and attacked my problem.

Ohmic loss thread

Sounds like a perfect opportunity to upgrade! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/alternator/

(wish I'd known about that when my alternator died a couple of years ago)

The article also show how to disassemble/rebuild.