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Even have an alternator leak?

AKnate

Icehole
Joined
Mar 5, 2022
Member Number
4908
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1,263
08 Dodge 5500 diesel.

Went to unhook the batteries before leaving for work and noticed like rusty water drippings in the air box.

Get to looking and it's all over the hood and sprayed around the alternator.
Looks like rusty water and goop.

The day before I noticed the belt chirping a little when I first started it, but it sometimes does that when it's cold (grid heater load the alternator)

Nothing else is showing signs of leaking, coolant is red.

Alternator is a couple years old, maybe 750hrs on it, if that. Mostly just use the truck to haul stuff.

Dudes in here shidded themselves and now my damn truck is too? :laughing:

 

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Stix said:
Some euro trash have water cooled naters’ though
Click to expand...
Pretty sure a few caddys used them too.

Wouldn't be surprised if Dodge started doing it since they're more Euro than not these days.
 
That's got a OWC One Way Clutch pulley on it, not the one that overruns as well as dampens inputs. It could have spit it's guts out... Its not uncommon, and who knows what the reman alternator people do with them....
 
landen300 said:
That's got a OWC One Way Clutch pulley on it, not the one that overruns as well as dampens inputs. It could have spit it's guts out... Its not uncommon, and who knows what the reman alternator people do with them....
Click to expand...
I looked at new replacements and they have the clutch.
 
My 08 2500 diesel
Doesn’t have a clutch on the alternator pulley.

In your picture when you’re looking down, that would be the air-conditioning unit.
My opinion, That looks like the oil / lube that is used in the air conditioning system.
 
Hydromaster said:
My 08 2500 diesel
Doesn’t have a clutch on the alternator pulley.

In your picture when you’re looking down, that would be the air-conditioning unit.
My opinion, That looks like the oil / lube that is used in the air conditioning system.
Click to expand...
Truck doesn't have A/C.
It's a proper work truck, no limp wrist fru fru garbage. Rubber floors, crank windows, manual locks.
About the only thing that would be nice is thawing mirrors and powered passenger side.
 
K

Then, why didn’t you take the belt tension off the alt and spin the alternator with your hand?

Cause if all of that came out of the sealed bearing for the alternator and you should easily feel it grinding or being gravely .

I’m surprised you haven’t deleted the heater. You wouldn’t want any of that FuFu comfort crap on that truck,

Edit
The end of your alt the pulley does look different than mine.
 
Last edited:
I had a pinhole in my radiator and it sprayed onto the alternator then the alt pulley and fan sprayed it out just like that. It was new coolant too but after a while looked rusty like that.

I vote you have a coolant leak somewhere leaking onto the alt pulley/fan.
 
Hydromaster said:
K

Then, why didn’t you take the belt tension off the alt and spin the alternator with your hand?

Cause if all of that came out of the sealed bearing for the alternator and you should easily feel it grinding or being gravely .

I’m surprised you haven’t deleted the heater. You wouldn’t want any of that FuFu comfort crap on that truck,

Edit
The end of your alt the pulley does look different than mine.
Click to expand...
I didn't have time, was trying to quickly put the truck away before flying out for for work.

I'll be able to pull it apart in a couple weeks.

A/C isn't needed for the maybe week it's in the 80s.
Heat... I had the heat on in my place at least a few times every month in 2023 and 24.
 
ExBoss had a huge alternator in the shop about 3 months before the fire (11/18) and it had connections for cooling oil the thing must have put out 1K amps @24v
 
AKnate said:
Truck doesn't have A/C.
It's a proper work truck, no limp wrist fru fru garbage. Rubber floors, crank windows, manual locks.
About the only thing that would be nice is thawing mirrors and powered passenger side.
Click to expand...
:laughing: Not because you’re in fawking Alaska where A/C isn’t needed.

If you came down here for a summer, A/C would be the only thing to help you while your body acclimated to your new environment. You wouldn’t even know what to do with 90°~110° every day for months on end.
 
PAE said:
ExBoss had a huge alternator in the shop about 3 months before the fire (11/18) and it had connections for cooling oil the thing must have put out 1K amps @24v
Click to expand...
the german watercooled ones are typically under 300a of 12v
they're just crammed into a real shitty engine bay
 
The Supercharged 3800 GM V6’s I like so much have water cooled alternators because the Alt is underneath the cowl with no air movement.

Changing one when I was going to school to be a GM/Toyota ASE mechanic was the last straw that made me drop out of school, quit the auto biz and go running back to the oilfield.
 
JR4X said:
The Supercharged 3800 GM V6’s I like so much have water cooled alternators because the Alt is underneath the cowl with no air movement.
Click to expand...
No shit? I don't recall ever seeing one, and I can recall one series 1, several series 2 and maybe a series 3
They've got the heater hoses back in that area, and those stupid coolant elbow things a little forward and below...
 
[486] said:
No shit? I don't recall ever seeing one, and I can recall one series 1, several series 2 and maybe a series 3
They've got the heater hoses back in that area, and those stupid coolant elbow things a little forward and below...
Click to expand...
Yep, have to do something to delete it when using one not transverse mounted. Maybe not have to, but do. The block is ported for the coolant, and the coolant goes through the alternator mount accessory bracket sealed with o-rings. Those o-rings crack and fail and you get coolant leaking out of a place that doesn’t make any sense. And it’s very unpleasant to fix with the engine in the car. The front motor mount has to come off the engine, as well as a bunch of other crap to get in under the cowl to work on it.

The coolant doesn’t circulate through the alternator itself, the bracket is cooled (heated if you ask me) as a heat sink for the alt. So I am misrepresenting it as water cooled a little bit.
 
JR4X said:
Yep, have to do something to delete it when using one not transverse mounted. Maybe not have to, but do. The block is ported for the coolant, and the coolant goes through the alternator mount accessory bracket sealed with o-rings. Those o-rings crack and fail and you get coolant leaking out of a place that doesn’t make any sense. And it’s very unpleasant to fix with the engine in the car. The front motor mount has to come off the engine, as well as a bunch of other crap to get in under the cowl to work on it.

The coolant doesn’t circulate through the alternator itself, the bracket is cooled (heated if you ask me) as a heat sink for the alt. So I am misrepresenting it as water cooled a little bit.
Click to expand...

Stupid shit like that (and many other reasons) is why I closed my auto repair shop 10yrs ago and got into specalized heavy equipment repair.
 
SLOWPOKE693 said:
Stupid shit like that (and many other reasons) is why I closed my auto repair shop 10yrs ago and got into specalized heavy equipment repair.
Click to expand...
I just left my engine machinists shop where he’s pressing dry sleeves in a Cummins block. Everything I work on is wet sleeved and that kind of difference is why I’m an outside mechanic.
 
JR4X said:
:laughing: Not because you’re in fawking Alaska where A/C isn’t needed.

If you came down here for a summer, A/C would be the only thing to help you while your body acclimated to your new environment. You wouldn’t even know what to do with 90°~110° every day for months on end.
Click to expand...
I lived in south Idaho for 4 years...
 
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