Alternator failure - a new record?

[jbDC9]

With the hobbs meter at a whopping 33.3 hours, my alternator crapped out last evening. It's a Van's ND 60 amp reman unit that came with the FWF kit... has anyone else had one fail this soon or did I set a new low time failure record??

There is a bit of good news to go with it though; I pulled it this morning and took it to a local alternator/starter shop and had them bench check it. Yep, it's dead; it seems the brushes were outta whack, not making good contact. The shop visit was a pleasant surprise; they jumped right on it, installed a new brush block assembly for 10 bucks and I was out the door in maybe 20 minutes. I haven't reinstalled it yet, but it should be fine, checked good on the bench after reassembly.

I thought the shop manager's reaction to the alternator itself was kinda funny... I forget his exact words, but he gave it a funny look and said basically "what kind of cheap Chinese knockoff junk is this?" Nice! Does Van's still sell the rebuilt 60 amp I/R alternators or are they new build units?

[Radomir]

John, the quickest I know of is approx 30 seconds and it went poof... It sucks that it dies immediately after you cowl up the plane...

those rebuilts weren't all that reliable.. at least the 3 I know of.

[Bryan Wood]

Mine died on the final flight of phase one with 39 hours and 45ish minutes on it. FWIW Van's has the regulators and they are easy to install.

Best,

[N941WR]

The 3 Radomir mentioned were caused by the brushes and bearings being out of alignment causing the thing to fritz. A good local rebuild seems to solved the problem on all three.

[Bryan Wood]

Bill,

My response was poorly worded. If you happen to have a regulator failure on one of these alternators Van's has them in stock.

Happy New Year,

[N941WR]

Brian,

The three that died were all on the same RV-7A and Radomir wasn't exaggerating on how quickly one of them died. It didn't even make it to the run up.

The problems with all of them were caused by the things I mentioned earlier. Replacing the regulator wouldn't have helped. That's all I was trying to point out.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed about mine.

[jbDC9]

30 seconds? Ouch! Man, I wasn't even close to holding the record there.

I read in a few other posts that the brushes can be troublesome, so I hope that today's new brush block assy takes care of that. I'm glad to see that Vans has regulators in stock as well, just in case... good thing too, since the local shop here didn't have any that would fit it and they couldn't source any thru their computer system.

[flydjd]

Hi all,

Sorry but I am probably missing something here due to ignorance but why are Van's selling something at approx $200 that is not checked out before shipping and/or isn't fit for its task ?

If I had bought this and paid shipping to Europe and then it needed fixing before use, or after only a few hours, I would not be a happy bunny ! ( I don't need extra work on top of my self induced c*** ups !!!! )

Does anyone else have other source suggestions...for example I will probably go with an Aerosport engine and accessories

Sorry to be posting criticism

[Bill Dicus]

I thought these were internally regulated. Are they? If so, can the internal regulator be replaced (and purchased separately from Van's)? Mine is mounted but hasn't been run. Bill D

[William Slaughter]

David,
I would think the two leading choices to be the Plane Power internally regulated alternator (I'm currently leaning in that direction), or the expensive but extremely reliable B&C externally regulated. Van's now offers the Plane Power unit, but you check out the details at www.plane-power.com.