How hard is it to change brushes in an alternator??

Now my gen / alt light comes on every now and then

Are you really an artist? If so, perhaps you should find a better place to keep your brushes than in an alternator!

Cheers, Greg

I was having an alternator issue earlier this year. Battery going flat (brand new), light coming on intermittently etc.

If you remove the black plastic housing (has the D and B terminals) you will see the 2 brushes. I spent ages looking around and you cant just buy a replacement brush assembly (ie brushes and plastic housing). I ended up going to an auto electrician who gave me some Bosch brushes. I then desoldered the old brushes (worn down by about 7mm) and then soldered in the new ones. Pain in the ass for what should be a $10 part.

I still get the alternator light come on intermittently every now and again but havent had a flat battery since. I think the regulator is nearly dead but you cant get to that without removing the alternator in which case i might as well replace the whole thing ($120-ish from Classic VW)

hope that helps

depends on the make of the alternator ,as some have the unscrew and replace like a normal one,well one i have is ,havent looked at the cheaper chinese one yet....

Hi

An old trick on the alternator is to bend the metal bit that the brush is soldered to so that the brushes poke out further. You can tell if they haven't been touching properly, they look a bit dull on the rubbing surface.

You could most likely adapt an external reg to the internal reg models.

Steve

Another trick is to turn the brushs around, like if they are curved a bit turn em round and should get bit more like out of em