Alternator slop

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Mar 22, 2016 | 05:00 PM

jozw30

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Alternator slop

Installed my alternator and grabbed the pulley to give it a spin for the heck of it and noticed the internals seem sloppy to the pulley. Not comepletely independent of each other but loose for a quarter turn or so?

Is this normal?

Mar 23, 2016 | 05:07 PM

Pop N Wood

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Doesn't sound normal to me.

Try torquing down the bolt holding the pulley to the rotor.

Mar 23, 2016 | 06:09 PM

jozw30

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So I looked at this some more and what I'm seeing is it's not "sloppy". I stuck a small screw driver in there to block the internal parts from moving and tried to rotate the pulley.

Clockwise, it's solid (the internal rotating assembly is one to one) but if I rotate the pulley counter clockwise and block the internal assembly, the pulley will rotate with little resistance.

Mar 24, 2016 | 06:53 AM

jozw30

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Can anyone confirm that this is OK? All you have to do is use a screw driver to stop the internal fan from rotating. If you turn the pulley counterclockwise, will it keep rotating even thought the internal motor parts do not?

Appreciate it.

Mar 24, 2016 | 07:51 AM

truckdoug

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i tried on a couple spare alternators, none of them do that

Mar 24, 2016 | 09:29 AM

jmd

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Pictures and application details are helpful.

sounds like a clutched pulley.

Mar 24, 2016 | 12:20 PM

homemade87

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Thats normal . My alt does the same thing . If you quick turn it one way and stop quick with your hand it will still rotate a little . I thing GM designed it for the inertia of the alt to eliminate the belt from getting slack under quick throttle blips . It will free wheel a little and allow everything to catch up .

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Mar 24, 2016 | 09:10 PM

jozw30

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From: Phoenix, AZ

Homemade87. That's exactly what mine does. It's only got 18k miles on it, I was hoping it was ok..... Just felt weird.

Thanks again. I'll move on to the next goofy problem.

Hope everyone has a nice holiday!

Mar 24, 2016 | 11:30 PM

#10

gofastwclass

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From: KCMO

Corvette alternators have one-way clutches built in and I think certain GTO's did too. The F-Body cars do not and neither have any trucks I've worked on.