ok getting irritated...

[4Runninfun]

Monday the :princess: and i went up on mt herman and did some shooting, since everything melting there is water and mud everywhere. the truck came back pretty dirty. so yesterday i went to go and wash it, took it over hosed it down and then headed down to the springs. well the charge and brake light came on. CRAP, but shortly after i got on the highway it went off. so i thought things were cool. but as soon as i got off the highway and the rpms dropped the lights came back on. so went over grabbed some lunch and headed back, well by now it was dark so i decided to take the back roads home, so that i wouldn't run into too many cars. big mistake! i hit every freaking light and was constantly stuck behind people going 10 under the posted limit. why is it when your car is having troubles and you're trying like hell to just get it home every retard and moron driver has to find a way to get in front of you? well due to everyone getting in front of me i didn't make it home. i got within 2 miles of home and then the truck overheated. :mad:

this is getting really REALLY old, this is the 3rd alternator i've gone through in 3 years. and after the first time i'm particularly careful not to get it wet, so today i don't know what the hell happened. i must have just barely sprayed it. either way this is beyond irritating. what i really don't get is how i've seen countless toy's mudding and fording rivers headlight deep without issue. i've made sure all the boots are on. the whole alt has a covering of WD-40 to keep water off, and this crap still happens. It's almost to the point where i don't feel comfortable taking it to remote places on the chance that i might encounter some water and my alt dies. i really don't want to loose confidence in my truck.

I'm looking into swapping a GM alt in to solve the problem. has anyone here tried this, or know of any good write-ups on how to do it?

[Brody]

Jon

There is a good link to a one wire GM alternator conversion in the How To section. There is also a slew of stuff on pirate4x4 Toyota FAQs. There is a direct link or a copy in the Toyota section here, in the make and model links.

Patrolman has done this, I believe, and might have either written it up or posted another link.

What engine do you have, anyway? I have a good 3.0L alternator that you are welcome to have if you can find a way to get it to work.

Let me know if you locate the links. If not I'll round them up for you. Let me know on the alternator also. It is from a 94 Toy extended cab PU with the 3.0L. Should be able to get it to work by just changing the connector or leaving some wires off. There is also probably something in the pirate FAQ about this.

BTW, I have had absolutely no trouble with any Yota alternator, ever. Maybe there is something else wrong. You might also want to get one of those crappy made in Mexico life time guarantee alternators that you can just replace for nothing when yours craps out. I finally did that with my PS pump.

[Brody]

Jon-

I just found and posted up a bunch of links for you in the How To section

[4Runninfun]

thanks brody i'm going through them right now, and yeah first step when i got home last night was to fire up pirate and start reading. if you could snap a few pics of your alt with an idea of dimensions, that'd be great.

[Brody]

Coming your way. Give me a few minutes...

[Brody]

Here you go Jon. This might be from the 3.4L before I did the upgrade alternator, which means that it is less than a year old, though it has been sitting around in a box for awhile. It was in a 3.4L marked box and I usually don't mis label stuff like that. The electrical connector should tell you what it is. I might even have the other female end of the connector somewhere, too.

FYI, I am going to be meeting a friend at the Marriot DTC, Belleview and I25 around 4PM today and will be hanging out for awhile.

My phone : 303-507-3066

[4Runninfun]

thanks pete, i'm gonna go pull mine see how close the dimensions are. i'll give ya a call when i get it out.

[WINKY]

why is it when your car is having troubles and you're trying like hell to just get it home every retard and moron driver has to find a way to get in front of you?


There is a guy i know called Murphey he has a few laws you should read. :lol:

Sorry to hear about the crappy alternators, ive had my fair share at the inopportune time as well.

[Brody]

Down in roughly that same area tomorrow, too. Gotta go now..call if you need it and we'll hook up.

[Jimmy]

I'll throw this out there (and keep in mind I'm not a Toy guy) since it popped into my mind as I was reading original post: Any chance the belt is slipping or something like that? I'm presuming the belt that runs the alternator is also the belt that turns the water pump (given that the system overheated). Just a thought...

[4Runninfun]

jimmy you actually had it right, it occurred to me earlier while i was driving yesterday to check and make sure the belt wasn't loose or anything. i checked it and it seamed fine, worn but still going around. today as i was under the hood about to pull the alt i noticed that the belt was completely off! :eek: so i ran down to napa today and grabbed a new belt and all seams good with the charging problem. Now it sounds like there is a bad exhaust leak. so i'll have to start looking at that tomorrow. hopefully it's just a bad gasket and not something worse from overheating.

[scoutfam]

I have had 3 yotas in my life, all trucks, 1 with a 20R, 1 with a 22R and 1 with a 22RE and now my buddy has 2 with 22REs we have done lots of work including motor rebuilds and heck there is a 22RE in my shop waiting on a rebuild now. I say this so that you know I have been around toys for a bit. Now on to the problem. they are the worst in the world about getting wet. the guys that you see running them in the reeeever have made a lot of mods to do this. from the distributer that comes with a rubber cover to the alt and so on. They make the longest wearing best running engines I have ever worked on but they just didn't do a good job of making them water proof. do a search on the web for water proofing a toyota and I think that you will find lots of info. this is a good one that comes to mind
http://forums.off-road.com/toyota-suv-s-trucks/59982-waterproofing-engine-engine-compartment.html
I am one of those people who constantly clean my motor and engine compartments and my toyotas were no exception but it was just a given that after a washing that I would pull the dist cap and dry it off and then the plug wires and so on...... My buddy's yota is no exception especially now that he has the SFA conversion. When they do this they often cut out the fender wells and remove the splash guard and plates. Now we are working on new ones to prevent water from getting up in the engine compartment :D

[WINKY]

make sure the water pump isnt seized either causing the belt to jump..?

[Brody]

Nice call, Jimmy! Thanks for the pointer, Scotty, for the water pump maybe being siezed DEEZLPWR, and for the water proofing link Scoutfam!

Jon..Yota used to make a cool distributer cover that you can still find in the yards. It was a rubber booty and I had one on the last couple of Yotas I had. Might pick one of those up. I'll grab one if I see one the next time I am junkyarding..

[4Runninfun]

thanks for the link scotfan. actually that is how i killed my first alt, was by washing the engine. after that i learned, and i try my best to keep water from entering the engine bay.

the belt this time was definitely gone. i knew it was getting worn, and somewhere between mid colorado springs and my house it decided it wasn't going to stay on anymore.

pete if you find that boot that'd be great. luckily i haven't ever been it water deep enough to hit the dist. but it sure would be nice to have that piece of mind.