Alternator fun

A month or so ago I was driving a friend/customer to Vancouver to pick up a bed. He complimented on my truck, saying how well it was running (for its age). Well, we were in the tunnel under Hastings when I noticed my battery light flicker on. I was a little worried that I'd get stuck in Vancouver, but it flickered right back off again and was fine, in fact so fine that I kind of forgot about it even though it started to blink on with more frequency.

Then last week it was kind of on all the time. I decided it was probably the alternator, or maybe the battery. But it kept starting, no problem.

But eventually I decided I'd better get another alternator. I called around to the scrapyards, if they'd had one in stock it would have been less than $50, and new was $250-$300 from the auto parts places, so I ordered one on Amazon for $170. It was a couple of days shipping, and the day before it arrived my truck died.

I wasn't too far from home so I took the bus home, put an old battery in my backpack, and biked back. I switched batteries, the truck started, and drove for about 3 blocks before dying again. So I bought a new battery from a store nearby and managed to nurse the truck all the way home.

I took out the old alternator and waited until the next day for the new one. It went in without too much hassle. And truckie's been working fine ever since. Well, mostly fine--sometimes seems to run a little rough, I might have to get my fan clutch checked out...