What king of iron to unsolder alternator windings?

Question

Going to rebuild my alternator but want to find out if my windings are good first. 1999 Ford Taurus. 3G Alternator. I have a solder iron/pen 25W, a solder gun, not sure what wattage and a butane torch/solder iron. Have not had any luck with them. Any tips would be appreciated.

Brad

Answer 1

weller 230 watt buy them at rack shack

Answer 2

Well, I'm not sure which windings you mean, but here's the deal.

Rotors hardly ever go bad. The easy way to check them is with an ohmmeter or continuity tester. Check for continuity between the 2 slip rings, and make sure there is no continuity between them and the shaft. If that checks out OK and the slip rings aren't shot, you're almost guaranteed to be good to go. They only better way to test them is with a growler, and not too many places have them anymore, let alone sell them. To refresh your slip rings, get some Emery cloth and shine them up like you're doing a shoe shine, or better yet, chuck it up in a variable speed drill with the Emery cloth wrapped around the slip rings until they get nice and shiny again. You don't want to take the whole thing apart. You'll never get it back together again. They're dipped in a vat of molten lead when they're made.

Now, as far as the Stator windings, you might need a soldering Iron if they're soldered in place, (Ford does like to do that) but it won't take a very large one. Chances are the gun should be plenty if the Iron isn't enough. Once you get them loose, you want to take a freshly charged car battery with some cables attached (not hooked up in the car), and very quickly tap the two battery cables to each of the Stator windings in pairs, so that you hit all 3 possible combinations. It will make quite a spark, but they can handle it if they're in good shape. (Just make sure they don't get stuck. A quick glancing blow) If not, then it would have failed fairly soon anyway. If it doesn't throw a spark when you do it, you already had an open circuit.

Now solder the Stator back in, put in your new bearings, carbon brushes, diode trio, and maybe a Voltage Regulator to be safe, and it should be good for several more years, as long as nothing stupid happens.  ;-)

eBay? You're the one who's got to be kidding.

Answer 3

Are you kiding us? Another alternator is to cheap to rebuild old one..