Okay, so my kid has a 99 Jeep GC. He suffered a severe illness and has been sick for the last year, as a result his car has been parked. Finally able to get up and drive again. So I changed out the battery and checked all the fluids and started it up. Obviously the engine squealed, but then the serpentine belt broke. Not completely unexpected, so I swapped it out. Started it up and it ran, but then it started to smoke from the area of the alternator and the belt started smoking and spit little rubber debris so I shut it down. Does this sound like the alternator seized up ? There's about 150k on it and bought 2nd, maybe 3rd, hand, so don't have an indepth repair history. Ideas or suggestions ?

 

Welcome to the forum.

Best wishes for the health of your son.

All the belt-driven components should spin freely by hand when the belt is removed, except for the crankshaft.

It sounds like the generator has seized. Ensure that the replacement part meets or exceeds the amperage output as the one installed by the factory.

 

Thank you Wingless and I appreciate the kind words.

Yes, just checked and the pulley is seized up, won't turn at all.

 

My experience was that when the pulley seized I was unable to get it moving again. (That was on my boat.)

Get a replacement and get a belt. I've had good luck w/ Rock Auto. Don't forget to use the 5% discount coupon.

 

The Rock Auto site has parts for both the L6 and the V8.

These types of parts have been purchased by me from eBay, also with success.

 

Yeah, it's locked up good.

I gt a place near me that runs about the same as Rock Auto.

I nearly choked when I went to the O'Reilly site and they wanted $175 and $40 core charge.

I'll stick with the local guy for $85 !

 

If it's just the front bearing and you're good with your hands, a new bearing is only about $8. I used to rebuild my own GM alternators all the time.

 

I managed to order a new one off Amazon. Took a little bit longer to get it off, probably because I was terrified of snapping the heads off the bolts, but I soaked them with WD40 and managed to get it replaced. Started up like a charm and no issues since. Bolt placement on those things suck, hard to get any type of torque without having to worry about whether your gonna strip the head.