The secondhand alternator arrived.
Pulled the brushes off and had a look at the slip rings.
The brushes are at the end of their life.
The slip rings have wear on them and a groove where the old brushes
have worn but there is no sign of any wear through them so may be a candidate
for new brush/ regulator kit ive got coming from dmgr.
Anyone know if you can fit a 3 pin regulator to a 2 pin alternator.
They look identical except for the 3rd pin which i believe is not connected internally anyway

Any aftermarket regulator designed for the 120amp version of the OEM alternator, will fit any of the 120 amp chinese cloned alternators, as well as original 120amp alternators.


The earlier alternators pre face lift were 115 amp, and their brush pack regulator is of a different design to the later 120 amp, they cannot be interchanged between these two types as their mounting points are positioned differently.


Whether the new replacement regulator has two, ten, or four hundred pin outs,only two have every been used or are required for the diesel engined alternators, the aftermarket one's may have three outs, but only two will be connected internally, whatever brand it is.The loom for the alternator plug, to the ECU only has two wires within., relative to the pin out from the voltage regulator 15, 61E.

See my signatures below for explanations.


Snagger.

Decided to take the brush/ regulator out if the car today.
What a pain to get to the bolts!!
Got it off and the brushes look like they still had some life in them, alot more than the secondhand one i was sent which is nearly dead.
Noticed one of the brushes seems to be sticking so cleaned them out so they moved freelly.
Checked the slip rings, had worn grooves but not through the copper.
Thought i might have it sorted, put it back together, started it up.battery light on.
Thought id change the battery out from one of my other working cars in case it was an issue, started it up, no battery light!!! tested the voltage , 14.4 volts, thought it fixed, drove it around the block - battery light comes on again,tested voltage 12.6 volts at the battery!!
Ive got a brush regulator kit coming but wondering if that will fix it ?
To add insult to injury the zt that has the old battery now has an abs light it didnt have vefore swapping batteries !!
Im thinking a new alternator is the fix ??

Edit- the abs light in the zt has gone out- thank god for that !!

After getting prices for a new alternator for my diesel, (cheapest was $300 Aud shipped from the uk) thought id buy a slip ring and brush regulator kit and
recondition the second hand one.
Removed the bearing and slip ring today so waiting for new parts to arrive.
Edit- decided to bite the bullet and get a new alternator from Rimners.
Ill rebuild the second hand one with new slip ring and brushes/ regulator kit and keep it as a spare as the units are about $600 aud here if you can find them!!

Got my alternator slip ring kit today.
Pulled the secondhand alternator to bits, changed slip ring, bearing and bushes.
Put it all back together and got it checked and its working fine.
Havnt changed the faulty one in the car yet.
Ive got a new one on the way so ill keep the secondhand one as a spare as there as rare as hens teeth over here!!
Be interesting to find the issue in the faulty alternator in the car as ive tried changing the brushes and regulator with no success so must be the winding .

Rover never made alternators, all the alternators listed in the column below the main picture in the advert for the ALT 840 £84.00 UK in the first link I posted will fit your car, and could probably have been bought in Australia, it doesn’t matter what brand car they were fitted to, the fact that the advertised part ALT 840 is for a Rover 75, and the same model replaces all those other manufactured alternators, means you could have picked any of them if you could find any one supplying any of them , and bought locally ie in Australia.

The Chinese now make everything for everybody, who only stick their own label on it, and charge more.Caveat emptor


It's been like this globally for the last 40 years, probably longer..


Snagger.