My father was a mechanic for a small
Dodge/Hillman/Fiat dealer in the 50's
and 60's. He taught me to always change
the regulator whenever the
alternator/generator was replaced and
followed that advice himself. I suspect
this came from his training by Chrysler
when he was a mechanic, and during the
introduction of alternators in Chrysler
products in 1960 (I still have the
training paperwork).
As a result I have always followed this
advice whenever I replace the alternator
in my charging systems. However, I
would be skeptical of statements that I
need a new charging system every time I
replace the battery.
Tom
69 2000 "Mr. Hyde"
Portland, Oregon
http://www.acmehomesales.com/datsun
-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick J. Horne
[mailto:horne@cs.utexas.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 11:04 AM
To: datsun parts.com
Cc: Eric Corwin;
datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: battery problem on '69 1600
(I hope)
Yup, that's right. Years ago the Diehard
in our car went south and
my wife took the car in to get the
battery replaced (in warranty). She
called me at work saying that the
alternator and regulator needed to be
replaced also. I asked to talk to the
technician. He tells me that the
alternator is shot, it is making lots of
noise. I ask him if it is
charging correctly and he says yes, but
it is really noisy and should be
replaced. I then ask why if the
alternator is working fine does he want
to
replace the regulator. He tells me that
when they replace an alternator
they ALWAYS replace the regulator also.
I told him that, since the only problem
with the alternator was noisy
bearings that I would take care of them
later. He says that they couldn't
give us a warranty on the new battery
because of the defective alternator.
I told him to put my old battery back in
and that I would not darken their
doorway again. That was about 10 years
ago and I haven't been back.
My son worked for Sears doing battery
replacement/testing about a year ago
and was told to do the same thing. Ypu'd
think they would learn how to
treat a customer right!
Peace,
Pat
- Support Habitat for Humanity, A "hand
up", not a "hand out" -
Pat Horne, Network Manager, Shop
Supervisor/Future planner, CS Dept,
University of Texas, 1 University
Station C0500,Austin, Tx. 78712-1188 USA
voice (512)471-9730, fax (512)471-8885,
horne@cs.utexas.edu
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