I just got back home from Colorado last night. I build spiral staircases at work and I got to deliver one. It went to a house between Boulder and Nederland. The scenery was amazing. I did have a few "adventures" during the trip. My boss let me borrow his GPS (which is really stretching the term since It's an old Tom Tom!). I was going out highway 36 which is at the farthest northwest corner of Kansas. The stupid thing sent me north into Nebraska and then into Colorado going out, but took me through Denver and wanted to send me along I70 all thee way back home.
As I was driving through Nebraska (and maybe a little bit before) I started thinking that I was hearing a strange noise. Keeping in mind that the A/C doesn't work in my truck, I tried turning down the radio to listen to the noise, but I couldn't tell for sure. Going through Wray, CO, I could tell for sure that there was indeed a strange noise coming from my truck. I had to stop for fuel in Yuma, CO. I looked underneath the truck, but didn't see anything. As I was pulling away from the gas station, I noticed that my volt meter was only reading 12.9 volts. "Oh, great! My alternator is about to fly apart." was the only thing going through my mind (it usually has the volt meter reading between 14.1 and 14.3 volts. I went a little bit farther down the street, I pulled into the next gas station. There was a woman standing outside who said "you can do me a big favor and just take that to my house". Since she looked like a **** head, I decided NOT to check out the offer to see where it may lead. I told her that I couldn't do that and went inside that building. I asked the guy behind about parts stores in town and after a long description of where they are at, I decided that I would go to the Car Quest store since the alternator came from one just last fall. I drove a few blocks farther down the street to see when they opened and was pleasantly surprised to see 7AM. I went back to the gas station that I had bought fuel since it's a small truck stop. I backed in next to another brick nose truck that was off to the side of the truck parking area. After calling the customer and telling him that I was going to be late in the morning, I just HAD to look under the hood. Shining my flashlight around, I noticed that the nut that holds the alternator pulley on was MIA and the alternator fan had been rubbing on the housing, making the noise. I sure wanted to get under the hood of the truck that I was next to and try to take the nut off of it's alternator, but I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. In the morning, I was at Car Quest WAY before they opened. The guy inside couldn't understand that there was probably a nut sitting on the shelf that would fit, but finally agreed to see if one of his cores had a nut on it. I took the nut and the blue Loctite that I bought and went out the door. I Loctited the crap out of that nut and it worked fine. 14.2 volts when I started the truck. Then, after several hours, I was getting back closer to Kansas and heard that noise again. I immediately stopped and raised the hood. Thee nut was still tight on the alternator shaft, but the fan was a little bit loose. I decided to keep driving. About 30 minutes before I crossed into Kansas, I noticed that my volt meter now said 12.4 volts. ***? I shut off the radio and I gained .1 volt. I kept going and the volt meter stayed right at 12.5 volts for the next 2 1/2 hours (about). I had to stop for fuel and it was dark enough that I should have had my headlights on, but I wanted to save the batteries as much as I could. The 100 degree heat didn't affect me much since I knew it was going to be hot and I was smart enough to have a cooler along that full of bottled water and I kept it on ice. Every time, I emptied a bottle, i just stopped and grabbed another one. I didn't shut off the engine until I got home. I did have to turn on the lights after my last fuel stop. I also stopped at my garage (15 miles before I got home) to grab my trickle charger. I put the charger on the batteries after I got home figuring that there will be more charge than if I didn't. This morning, after everything cooled down, I opened the hood. I noticed that the field wire (I think that's what the little wire on a 1 G alternator is called) was broken, I had some solderless connectors in my tool box in the bed of my truck, but probably wouldn't have wanted to mess with it last night with all of the under hood heat. Now I can get the alternator to charge again before I drive it.
All I can think it that the extra vibrations from the alternator fan being loose caused the wire to break.
