My Hindsight 20/20 Moment- Alternator Replacement

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IRQVET

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Hindsight 20/20 Moment Coming At Ya! (Learn from my mistake)

So last night I was in the Hoe towing my race trailer coming back from the race track when my charging system idiot light came on and my battery dropped to 9 amps. It was bout 5pm so the sun was about to go down, and I knew I might be able to limp it home under day light conditions, but if I had to turn on my headlights, my Hoe would be dead on the side of the road within minutes.

Now I carry an OBD2 code reader in the Hoe, as I've learned it s easier to check my rig if it throws a code, and determine if its safe to keep driving or if its something where I need to shut it down immediately (cheap insurance).

So here is where I messed up, and I wanted to share the experience for everyones benefit:

I limp the Hoe to the nearest auto parts store and I get my battery and alternator tested, and both I'm told are toast. The battery is only a few months old, so I pull my generator out of my race trailer and hook up a trickle charger to the battery because I know I'll be working on replacing my alternator in the parking lot as I have no choice still being 100 miles from home.

So I buy a new alternator and I proceed to rip my old one out, and install the new one. It took me only 40 minutes to do the job by myself, in the dark, with limited tools which I was pretty happy about. Fast forward a few minutes and after it was installed and I cut the car on and the problem still remained. F#ck me!

Hindsight 20/20 I should have had the auto parts store bench test the new alternator prior to installation, as even though it was a new part, it was garbage. Luckly for me they had another one in stock which worked. But I was forced to remove and install the alternator twice which could have been avoided if I didn't assume the new one worked just because it was a new part.
 

exp500

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Good thing Murphy only showed up once or store would have been closed!
 

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