Alternator and Power Steering

[paul iossi]

check with the local independant truck parts house, not a dealership, also check with an independant auto electric shop for advice on the alternater. clean up the steering gear and try to identify what's leaking, it might be just a line or fitting going into the gear, if it's a cover leaking try tightening up the bolts, if one of the shaft seals are leaking it's probably time to consider a professionally rebuilt steering gear.

[Russell]

Iv'e owned a Inertrashnal or two and on the steering gear I would check out the local bone yard it dosent have to come off of a schoolbus a truck gearbox will do. My guess you need something in the 1600 to 1700 series. If your using your old pitman arm be sure to use a pitman arm puller. Use it on both gearboxs,do not use a hammer this is not good for the inside workings of the gear box. But first check for leaky lines. On the altenator look around the bone yard you can put anything you want on there as long as the belts and pulleys line up. On the brakes, it has been my experiance that you should set your shoes against the brake drums as close as you can, and look for vac. leaks on your booster and vac. tank. Be careful brakes and steering is serious stuff. Let me know if I can help . Russell

[the_experience03]

You could rebuild the pump easily enough. Sector shaft rebuilt kits (probably the most common leak point) are not very expensive at all, but they sure are a pain to do. As was mentioned above, get a good pitman arm puller. Put as much tension on it as you can, heat up the pitman arm, and tap it with a hammer on the side just enough to jar it loose a tiny bit...don't wail on it and do damage to the internals. Repeat the process. Sometimes they come easy, sometimes they are a nightmare.

As for the alternator...any local auto parts store that deals at all with heavier duty stuff should be able to cross reference it. Just bring the alternator in with you and look for the employee between the ages of 40-60 or 75+. Chances are they will be a career partsman, not someone just filling in the space between other jobs or working part time in retirement. The other option is to get your alternator rebuilt. Most rebuilders can rewind the alternator for higher output, chance the stator from a delta type to a wye type and back again, etc. Search in the yellow pages for automotive electrical. I bet there is a place within 60 miles of you that does that stuff.

[paul iossi]

seals don't just start to leak, their is an underlying cause, usually a worn bearing/bushing or a damaged shaft surface either corrosion or a nick of some sort, the other posability is a bent shaft, unless you have the equipment and knowledge to properly disassemble, clean, inspect, repair, reassemble and adjust a steering gear, it is safest and most cost effective to replace it with either a used or reman unit.
when it comes to the brakes, hydraulic or air? hydraulic brakes are pretty straight forward, air brakes on the other hand can be very dangerous if you don't understand the air chambers and how to handle them properly, AIR BRAKES ARE SPRING APPLIED AND AIR RELEASED, the springs inside are compressed inside the airchambers and the only thing holding everything together is the band clamp that clamps the case halfs together. for your safety get some professional help/advice/instruction before you just grab some wrenches and start taking things apart.

[the_experience03]

Originally Posted by Commander

P.S. - mightybus my frugal-ness/function-of-success ratio is currently undefined/ERROR-DIV/0

[Joe Monstermaker]

I'm a big fan of GM CS130 alternators, and have a vehicle with two of them on it that will hold an 1100-watt AC load, through an inverter, at idle speed. It'll do more at speed, but that's the great thing about the CS130, it puts out lots of power at idle. You'd be surprised how little current most big alternators make when they aren't spun up to road speed.
The other good thing about the CS130 is that wrecking yards are full of them, from late 80s to early 90s GM small cars, and I buy 'em for about $10 each. I've found that you can connect two in parallel without problems.
They all come with a serpentine-belt style pulley but you can take it off and bolt on a v-belt pulley.

[the_experience03]

So have you had many problems with the CS alternators burning up? GM themselves will tell you that that particular alternator was designed for burst output, but not sustained output. Of course at $10 a pop you can't go wrong. That is the big advantage to even say a 27SI is that it might only be rated at 105 amps, but it can do that ALL day long. Of course most of these use a Delta configuration which is great for reducing the heat output and makes them work really well for high output, but they need to be spinning with some speed to do it.