Looking to replace alternator

[DunesView]

Hi,


Over the weekend, our Diplomat displayed the 'Alt.Charge' light. And on Monday we were able to drop it off at a Cummins Crosspoint location here in Indiana. Just got a call from them saying, yes, the alternator is bad. A new one from Monaco is $1500 and they will be marking it up before we get the bill as well. Yikes!!! Monaco will not give them the part number so they can try to source one from NAPA or other places. Does anyone out there have experience with knowing what the part number would be from Monaco? Or any other suggestions?


Thanks in advance!


Beth

[Captjake1]

There will be a number right on the alternator. Once you have that, You will be able to cross reference or locate one. Might even rebuild yours.

[vito.a]

John's right. You can have yours rebuilt for a lot less.

[8.3Oilbuner]

Hi Beth; John and Vito.a are 110% correct. Have the one in you coach sent to a alternator/started rebuilder. One that does know what they are doing. It is just a one day turn around on the rebuild. When you have one apart, there is not that much to an alternator. Hope for a quick turn around and you get back on the road without your wallet crying!

[twinboat]

Cummins should be able to drive the part. Monaco didn't supply the alternator.

Some places make a Delco drop in replacement.

http://www.qualitypowerauto.com/cate...lternators.htm

[Twomed]

Where in Indiana? Super shop in Elkhart...$200-$300 to rebuild.

[Stan&Jacquie]

Beth.....don't fall for it. The same thing happened to me and I had to pay about two grand for the install. I could kick myself for being so gullible! Anyway, a rebuild is cheap but slow fix. New altos are available online.b. I've attached a pic of my new unit from Monaco. It was available online for about $350. Go figure.

My coach is a 2007 Knight with a 8.3 liter Cummins, 330 hp.

Good luck.

[veraken]

I replaced my 160 amp Leece Neville 2824LC with a 200 amp Delco Remy 28SI (cost @ $360). The install was fairly simple except on the DR you don't connect the excite wire since it is self exciting. Mine is a side radiator, so getting access to yours will be harder. I purchased mine with a extra pully wheel at:

RV and Motorhome Alternators


I had my old LN rebuilt and carry it as a spare.

[DunesView]

Thanks everyone, for your support. I talked with Devin from Cummins (Mishawaka). I suggested rebuilding the alternator and he was all over that! He got online and found 2 businesses locally. So as of yesterday afternoon, he was going to have his mechanic pull the alternator out this morning and run it to one of the electric places. So I'll post updates as they happen.

[NHRA225]

Have them take it to Van's Electrical systems about 2 miles from Cummins- They've been in business for decades.

[DunesView]

Update - my alternator has been delivered to one of the local shops for a rebuild. They quoted Cummins $380. Oh, they could order a new one for $700. No, please rebuild it. They said about a day and a half. So hopefully, we'll be back in business the middle of next week!

[2-Nickels]

I have had two of the 270 amp ones rebuilt over the years. Never any issues with the rebuilt ones.

[DunesView]

So I went over and picked the coach up yesterday. I will have to say, I am not happy! First of all, this is a Cummins repair shop. They made that clear. According to them, they were going out of their way to help me with the alternator, so I appreciated that. But I still have a Alt.Charge light on, on my dash as well as the volt gauge shows below 12 volts charging. When I turn the lights on, the gauge goes down to almost 10. So nothing as far as I'm concerned has changed. I also had the warning light on (which was another problem I was there to get fixed), according to the code was an air heater fault and the heater needed to be replaced. They put in a new heater in and the light remained on there as well. So they were able to send that part back and not charge me for that. Yeah, boy am I lucky. And yes, I'm being sarcastic. So all-in-all, they said it looks like I have a wiring problem in the wire harness, which is something they don't touch. Great. So they had my motorhome for two weeks and I'm not any further. I guess on the good side, the alternator was trash, so getting it rebuilt was a good investment. So I bring it home, plug it in, and am now having electrical problems inside the coach. I don't know if they blew something plugging it in there, which I had asked them to do. First thing I noticed, they had turned the inverter off/disabled it. No big deal. But all of the plugs on my CFCI circuit in the coach are not working. The CFCI in the bathroom won't reset. I've replaced that before. But when I plugged in my voltage meter to the outlet in the kitchen, it doesn't show a number, but displays 'open neutral'. So I googled that and read that this kind of problem is the most common cause of electrical fires. And when I first plugged it in the display acknowledged 50amp like it should. But now it reads 30amp and when you try to change it, it goes between 20 and 30. I don't know what's going on with this RV. But I unplugged it, shut off the batteries, finished cooking dinner, and went to bed.



I need an honest RV electrical person to take it to. I don't mind paying, but am getting tired of paying and not getting anything. We have now completed our move to Knox, Indiana. We are about 30 minutes from Valparaiso and the same from Plymouth. We can get to Elkhart in about an hour. The Monaco Service Center is about 2 1/2 hours from here. Does anyone have any recommendations from good experiences? Oh, we could also go up to Michigan if anyone has someone we could go to up there.


We have had coach electrical problems before and being that at the time it was at MasterTech, we had them work on it. I am hesitant to go back there. Seems like everything that has been repaired on this coach was previously either done the wrong way or 'rigged' to get by. And us as the next owners, have paid and paid over the years to make it right. So we don't know previous history, but it's not good.


Thank for listening!



Beth

[Bill767]

Sounds like you need to see Tom at Elkhart Sales and Service. His specialty is electrical.