The RIGHTHAND DRIVE column in the March issue of Corvette Fever refers to "hopeless l98 alternators". I thought they were pretty much all the same. Bogus had an issue with them a while back, but that was about rebuild quality. Is the mount perhaps not rigid enough, causing failure? What gives?

I've heard that comment before, but besides bogus, I personally have never heard of an issue.

I had a Pontiac Grand Prix a while back that ran through 5 alternators. I don't ever remember hearing that the 3.8L had alternator issues. But then again, I bought all my replacements for Autozone... and their refurbished parts are junk. Had I had bought a Delco replacement, I probably would have never had a problem. Fortunately, the autozone alternators were all covered.

DG

we had nothing but trouble with alternators in the 91 ever since 1995 when my dad bought it.

yearly it would kill one, whether it was delco or parts store brand, the lifetime warranty paid for itself big time.

about 5 years ago i swapped to a new delco 1992 alternator. had to modify the bracket a little bit and made a new rear support. has been fine since.

not sure if the cs130 design is prone to heat failure or what.

Hmm.

6 years and counting since I bought my 85, and as far as I can tell the alternator is original. One of the few original parts under the hood in fact.

85 is a unique year though, it's larger but I believe it can't handle as many amps as the later L98 one.

yeah after the OEM CS130 Alt died in my 89 I was replacing them almost yearly.. I bought a CS144 in 2001 and modded the bracket slightly to fit and I sold the car in 2008 with the same alt.

Cs144 is a much better design

My '89 has what appears to be the original alternator. I've turned the motor to 6200 rpms (even before installing underdrive pulleys), I now have it on an aftermarket smog pump delete bracket, and I run a nice stereo, huge amplified sub, nitrous bottle heater, and a ton of other electronic draws like nitrous solenoids, ignition box, etc. My alternator is still working great even though I've expected it to die by now.

My problem was with junk remans.

Be it voltage crap regulators (I had one that was three days old jump to 17 volts, not good) or bad brushes... They SUCKED.

I replaced the OEM alternator back in 2002, IIRC... it's been downhill since. I have had 5 or so... I have seriously lost count.

The latest one seems to be doing ok. I found a local shop to reman it... we shall see.

Thanks for the input. It will be one more thing I'll try not to worry about when I drive from Chicago to Ok. in May. It's a 5 month old napa unit.

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7+ years for me. Looks to be the original in mine too. (Still has the condesor on it).

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I wouldn't... just bring a couple of wrenches and a belt tool. Seriously. Alternators are easy to get... and equally easy to replace.

I have replaced a couple along with a couple of those Optima Batterys. I used AC delco alternators to. They sucked. I tried to put new parts in a old one I had. That was a total disaster. The one I got now seems to be working. I have it for about a 1 1/2 years? i had to buy a new bracket though. My original one snapped. I had it welded together. It snapped again. I had it welded one more time and thus it snaped AGAIN. Bought one from a junkyard, cleaned it up and painted it. Looks good as new. Locktited the bolts also.

I also had constant troubles with alt. When engine
was stock, all was fine. But wen I started to rev it
to 6k, alt would die every few months.

So I did this (CS144):

I just installed #7 in 3 years. All AZ, all under LT warranty. After the 3rd one, a couple of years ago, I decided to find out what was up. There are 2 areas that are 90% the cause of mine that failed:
1 - the biggest culprit is the bearings. If you hold a new alt up to your ear and rotate the shaft back and forth, you can hear the bearings click. When I opened them up, they are a little over 1/2 ball bearing short. The large gap between the balls becomes even more of a challenge when they get as hot as these do from just compartment heat. I made them give me new, in the package, Timpkin bearings. And those had no problems and the alt lasted 3 years.
2 - number 2 is the regulator. I am pretty sure they get a bunch of bad regulators, don't QC 'em, ship the alt's and wait to see if Joe Consumer bitches a bunch when they return them. My #5 alt would over-volt to 19 volts, intermittently. I had to wait until it over-volted, rush to AZ so somebody there could look at it. #6 alt would under-volt to 7 volts, again, intermittently. This time I got a little smarter, I took pict's with the phone. #7 seems to be doing ok.
I did write to the AZ home office to let them know of my displeasure (a gentlemans version), but have yet to hear back from them. It don't take too many trips to replace parts to find a different supplier. I'm already there.
Subman

I agree with Subman! Number 1 rule with the L-98 is never let Battery get discharged and try to charge with alternator. We have a company here that owner helped GM with design upgrades on these. Also sells an upgraded alternator replacement on-line called Iceberg When I used first of these 10 years ago never had a problem until a yr ago when I forgot rule number 1 about battery! Had rebuilt by shop here that handles these $40.00 good to go!

I've lost count on mine. Tried the Iceberg rebuild, lasted two months. The one I got now I don't even know the brand, just bought online cheap and its lasted a year ( knock on wood ). Did do the Big three ground, and I will probably go with the CS144 next time.

Been there - done that. CS144 is the ticket out off groundhog day, 7 years and counting

Please enlighten me. CS144. What exactly is it? The part # of a heavy duty GM alt. perhaps?

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I think it was originally used in the ZR-1, it is a heavy duty better designed alternator. Its only a minor mod., like filing down a tap to fit under the bracket correctly.