Just installed the 4th reman alternator on my GenII after getting a mere 800m out of the last one. All have been covered by a lifetime warranty, but the job of replacing them is getting tedious. Hence,I started prowling for why they were failing when the OEM lasted nearly 130k.

I compared the spec sheets that came with the just-failed and "new" units, and interestingly, the just-failed unit supposedly pumped out 138A at6k on the bench when sold. The new one manages a mere 106A at6k. Both are nominally 90A. Seems to stand to reason that anything much over 90A is either a problem (poor rebiuld) or is going to cause problems. My guess is the failed unit overheated.

The output graphs on the spec sheets look about the same - key is they are scaled differently (0-125 vs 0-150). On cursory review, there's no apparent difference. There's also a reassuring statement that "the output meets all specs"

Moral of the story - read the fine print. Don't get suckered into a reman unit that exceeds stock performance by such a wide margin!

FWIW these were/are WorldWide reman units that list for $250 each (!!!)


Paul