General LSX Automobile Discussion - alternator Help

I have been having issues with my battery not charging lately. So i took a multimeter across the battery while the car was running and got about 14.6V. At this point I took my car down to Autozone and to have them test my setup, there was only one person there so I had to pull my battery and bring it in side for him to test it...it tested good (optima red top). later that day my battery was dead again and I couldn't start my car.

So I checked the forums and found that sometimes you can have good voltage and still have an alternator that cant handle the load of the accessories (I have a 350 watt amp and disconnected it from the battery when I started having the issue and still no change.) and that a common swap was a 145 amp KG3 alternator. So I decided to go for it. today I picked up my used AD244 Alt and now I think I might have a minor issue.

When I spin the pulley by hand there is a loud squeaking noise, a slight scraping noise and a very little friction right about where the 4 pin connector is, concerned I stopped and had the alternator checked and it checked good but was very loud on the machine.

So my question is do you think it might just be some rust/corrosion where I can just spray some connector cleaner in the alternator and spin it to see if I can get it to stop or should I just have it exchanged or get it rebuilt (its a little over an hour drive to the place so it might cost in gas what it would to rebuild it.)

Also is there something other than a bad Alternator or battery that could prevent my battery from charging, if there is what is it and how do I check it. (Also all of my electrical connections on the car are clean and tight so that is not it.)

Thanks for any help

It sounds to me like your previous alternator was outputting proper charging voltage (14.6) when you tested it. It's possibile that the battery was just not holding the charge. I've read about several people having issues with the Optima batteries not holding a charge well as they age, even when they test OK.

Sounds like that new alternator has a bearing issue going on (squeaking, scraping, friction). It probably won't get any better just from a cleaning, but you could try.

It sounds to me like your previous alternator was outputting proper charging voltage (14.6) when you tested it. It's possibile that the battery was just not holding the charge. I've read about several people having issues with the Optima batteries not holding a charge well as they age, even when they test OK.

Sounds like that new alternator has a bearing issue going on (squeaking, scraping, friction). It probably won't get any better just from a cleaning, but you could try.

Well if that's the case with the battery I will charge it on a charger and check for voltage loss over time, its still under warranty so that good. If the battery turns out to be the culprit I might as well change out my alternator anyway sense I already have the new one.

I will try cleaning it, if the sounds and friction persist I guess I will have it rebuilt. Any one know of a place that does alternator repair in the San Jose Ca area that does good work and does not use cheap parts from China.