Bad Alternator

[camarocrzy]

I was driving today and all of a sudden the check gauges light came on. I looked at the voltage gauge and its almost in the red,a hair above it. I take it home and it starts right back up,no ABS inop light or anything but it still close to the red and my stiffening capacitor for my system reads about twelve. Did my alternator crap out? Also,if it did,i checked on http://car-part.com/ i searched for a alternator for a 96 camaro and it says that a Buick regal is also compatable. Is that true? Its my only alternative till payday or esle i would spend the hundred or so dollars for one.

[HBHRacing]

only way to now for sure is to have the charging system load tested. Sounds like alt, but there are other possible causes

[camarocrzy]

Does anyone know if the alternator on the Buick Regal with the 3.8l the same as mine? I would have it tested but i dont think i can make it that far before it dies,its either to the junkyard or to the parts store to have it tested,thats even if the buick alt is compatable.

[camaroman1181]

in all honesty, the best way to test the alternator is off the vehicle on a bench tester. i know most part stores around me do that for free. that should tell ya right away if its your alternator or something else in the charging system.
as far as the compatibility issue, i did a few searches on autozone.com and found that the part numbers were not the same for the 96 camaro and different year regals. they might be compatible still, but probably not a direct bolt on.

[98 3.8]

Even better than yanking the alternator for a bench test is just having Autozone do a charging system diagnostic. They roll the cart out, pop the hood, hook the probes up, and get their readings. They will be able to tell if the alternator is bad from their readings.

But yeah, don't drive the car until you have it fixed or you will ruin the battery...I drove mine for a day on a bad alternator and the battery was dead after that.

[NOS2006]

haha I was going down the road a week or so back and all of a sudden my Check Gauges, Air Bag, ABS INOP, and SES lights all went on. I was like.. WTF! I turned it off when I went in McDonald's and when I came out.. no power! Bad battery and alternator.

Just buy a rebuilt one. It looks great and works even better. Here's mine...

Alternator:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...s/Engine-2.jpg

Engine Bay:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a2...s/Engine-1.jpg

[camarocrzy]

I also did a search on autozone.com and the camaro96 and regal 96 had the same exact part numbers.

[Razzer]

Go through car-part.com and buy one locally, then go to autozone to have them bench test it to make sure it works then put it in. I just did this for my neighbors f-150 so that the stock 65 was replaced with a windstar 140 amper, just a little work to make it fit.