New aftermarket clone of Delco 10si alternator

[hermitjohn]

No rest for the wicked.  I was heading down county road to do grocery shopping with the F250 and on popped the alternator idiot light.  Wouldnt go off no matter how I revved it.  And wiring ok when I checked.

No when alternator goes on most anything I replace it with a Delco 10si alternator.  Kind GM used in 70s.  Though it got where the rebuilt ones didnt last very well.  They seem to just put new bearings and voltage regulator/brushes.  Then rest of it only replace parts that are faulty.  This means that rebuilt alternator arrives at parts store containing some really high mile parts since the cores are over 40 years old.

Well anymore there are China clones of the 10si made of all new aftermarket parts.  I bought one at O'Reilly that I put in my Festiva.  It worked great, no crazy light going on and off near idle like many of the rebuilds do.  So when the 10si on the F250 went bad, I ordered cheapest all new one I found on ebay.  $52 shipped.  Said for marine applications which I ignored.

Ok I get it last evening, on busy days, UPS puts me last on their delivery list.  Open it this morning and yes its a 10si, BUT it has a funky screen shield thing front and back and a very non-original plug.  Came with plug but had to splice wires, cant just unplug from old one and plug into new one.  Also had to drill out the pivot hole.  Some 10si's have bigger diameter pivot hole than others, and for the ford mounting bolt to go through, needed the big hole.  No problem drilling out aluminum.  Only thing about the hole difference is if I ever had to buy one from a parts store to get home, be tricky drilling it out if they only had them with the small hole.  Suppose I should find a smaller diameter emergency pivot bolt to stick in glove box.

But got it installed and took truck to town as I was out of produce and needed to do big load laundry.  Not a hiccup.  Ignition on, idiot light lights, engine starts, light immediately goes out at idle.  So big thumbs up.  When I pulled the old one,  saw Duralast sticker on it so it must be a lifetime warranty rebuilt one from Autozone.  But I have no idea what I originally bought it for.  Pretty sure I didnt buy it for the F250.  Ought to take it in and see if I could get free replacement for it.  Pretty sure its just a diode, but usually not worth futzing with trying to repair one, just get a replacement.

[spacecase0]

marine applications parts do not spark at all
quite nice for not lighting things on fire that you would rather not have burning
marine parts usually cost way more than regular,
likely why it had a non standard connector, so that people are not tempted to just install the car version in a boat

at least for me, lifetime warranty from Autozone means you have to have your original sales slip,
but they print them on thermal paper, so they can't be read after about 2 years.
so lifetime warranty from Autozone means about 2 years

diodes are not that hard to replace
and as a passing thought, if you do a 120V AC conversion on it, you will not even need the diodes

[hermitjohn]

Yea, was unusual that the "marine" version cheaper than auto version. But online you run into all sorts of odd pricing. Maybe they bought a boat load of marine alternators from China and they werent selling very fast?? So lowered price to move them to people like me that dont really care as long as it works for cheapest price. I wasnt thrilled to find I needed to splice wires, but pretty simple. Wires still in same order though not labeled except for the B+ which is obvious anyway. I imagine most of the 10si alternators are not going onto 1970s GM vehicles. Most anymore are for tractors, boats, hotrods, non original applications, just cause they are easy to wire and cheapest internal regulator alternator out there. You can even get a serpentine pulley for them. Seller of this marine alternator said if I wanted a serpentine pulley on it rather than v-belt pulley, to make a note when I paid. Same price either way. Also direct replacement for the 1960s GM alternator with the external regulator. I still remember a time when I used the 1960s GM alternator on stuff cause it plus an external regulator was cheaper than the 10SI. That was long time ago. Imagine price for it way higher now cause of very limited demand. Only somebody wanting to restore 60s GM to original would use it. Cant remember think it was like 20 to 30 amp?? About like the earlier generation generators.

Autozone has raised prices enough that I rarely shop there anymore, what with the questionable quality control on their parts and the much less friendly warranty service than in years past. Also I usually have the time to wait upto a week for online parts to arrive rather than drive into town. This alternator was real ground UPS, not hand off to USPS so delivered to end of my driveway. And it was shipped immediately and here in 3 days which really gets seller brownie points. I hate ordering and it takes them week just to get it to the PO to begin its journey.

Yea despite what they say Autozone purchase records in their system seem to disappear after a while.  The way to preserve the thermal receipts for longer time is to sandwich them between two pieces clear contact paper.  Keeps the air away.  Also want to store them in dark place.  Sunlight will bleach them too.  I never tried it, might want to digitally scan the receipt.  Not sure if they would accept a scan or printed version of a scan or not or if it has to be the original.

[Deleted]

Funny about pricing.

A few years ago, I needed both side view mirrors for my Sonoma.

On ebay, for the Chinese knock offs, for the exact same mirrors, the one listed under Chevy were like $53, but those listed under GMC, were $36 with free shipping. The same mirror for Isuzu was like $103.