Rebuilt 200 amp Leece Neville Alternator

[Coin-Op]

The day we departed from the ACA Salem Pre Rally our alternator stopped working. By useing the generator to keep the battries above 12v, so the computer would not shut us down, we were able to get home.
Steve at A & N Diesel told me our 160 amp Neville alternator has two "sense" wires one for the starting battries and one for the house battries. Also they are hard to find with two "sense" wires, so he suggested rebuilding ours.
He pulled the alternator and sent it to Larry at Northern California Charging Systems. Larry rebuilt the 160 amp Neville into a 200 amp alternator. The 160 amp Neville failed because the diodes inside the alternator case get too hot. On the rebuilt 200 amp alternator the diodes are on the back of the case so they get more air around them. I took the coach in at 8 AM and picked it up at 3 PM the same day with the rebuilt 200 amp alternator.

[GMDavidson]

Good info! Thanks

[REWahoo]

Coin-op, do you know what the charges were for the rebuild - excluding labor to remove/install?

[big jimbo]

Early alternator failure in my 06 APEX was one of the MANY things that went wrong during the first couple of months of ownership that caused me more grief than I was willing to deal with. I only had the coach for one year, and the happiest day of my life was the day I got rid of the coach.

I know there are many happy Alpine owners out there, but I was not to be one of them.

Best Wishes

[wa8yxm]

I will bet that by rebuilding you also saved a bunch of $$$$$$$$ too.

[Coin-Op]

The cost to rebuild my alternator and change it to 200 amps was $455. I think a new one ordered on line is over $800 and you can't get the new one delivered in less than 4 hours.

[REWahoo]

Thanks Coin-Op. A local shop quoted me $250-300 to rebuild my 160. I may talk to them about going up to 200 like you did.

[swansnest]

Tom - Wish we had known about this! LAst year we replaced ours with a new 200 amp Delco Remey s28 si state of the art technology for only about $350. I bought one for Tom Cook & brought it to the Rally.

We broke down leaving Redmond. Still not up yet. Will pm you!

[Old Rv'er]

Swansnest - what happened - what broke - how bad is it. We all want to know.

[Old Rv'er]

We were headed into Branson, MO and got a warning we were not charging the batteries, Craxx, figured the alternator went out, but low and behold, some lose wires under the coach, and the Xantrex battery temp sensor went out. Xantrex provided the sensor free including the shipping.

But knowing the above will be handy if I ever have to have it fixed. Did they provide you a list of parts replaced on the rebuild, like new bearings/bushings, etc?

[swansnest]

2 years ago our L/N 160A Alternator went out as we were starting the trip to St Paul - FMCA. It was replaced at a TA with the wrong one - which caused all sorts of problems for us. By the time we finally discovered it - we had spent several thousand in DX - etc.

After much research - I bought a Delco Remy 200A Alt from Dynatron in Long Beach. It is a State of the Art- High Technological Unit that is made to stand up to high heat environments (like we have in the Apex). Costs less than $400. I have had no electricaql problems since installing it 18 months ago until my ZANTREX RS 3000 INVERTER went out as we were leaving the FMCA Redmond Rally.

That is another long story that I will post when it is all resolved and we get home (hopefully tomorrow).

[Beagle RC Air]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swansnest 2 years ago our L/N 160A Alternator went out as we were starting the trip to St Paul - FMCA. It was replaced at a TA with the wrong one - which caused all sorts of problems for us. By the time we finally discovered it - we had spent several thousand in DX - etc. After much research - I bought a Delco Remy 200A Alt from Dynatron in Long Beach. It is a State of the Art- High Technological Unit that is made to stand up to high heat environments (like we have in the Apex). Costs less than $400. I have had no electricaql problems since installing it 18 months ago until my ZANTREX RS 3000 INVERTER went out as we were leaving the FMCA Redmond Rally. That is another long story that I will post when it is all resolved and we get home (hopefully tomorrow).

Our Leece Neville 160A is running with cracked rear frame from being assembled wrong. Time to make the change to the newer Delco unit.
Was your 200 amp Delco Remy alternator a direct replacement? no bracket or wiring modifications?
beagle

[swansnest]

Beagle - It is a direct replacement w/o modification. And it sure runs better with the Delco Remy! And you should be able to buy it for less than the Leese!

[Old Rv'er]

As an update to this thread. Leese-Neville is still in business. I am going to call them tomorrow and see what if any warratny is on the one we have. I also went to the website and downloaded several documents which help in diagnosing alternator issues. I will send those to EM and he can put them on the Tech section of the ACA site.

I don't want to have all the problems the Swans did by changing out the alternator and not getting the correct one. I will also have it rebuilt if possible to the 200 Amp version. Once I talk to LN I will see if they can send me a 200 am one which is a direct replacement to the 160. And with my luck, mine has failed, but I'm not sure since this is the second time I have received this warning beep/message, and they have been 6 months apart.

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