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Is there a more reliable bolt in than this O'Riley's or other corner store stuff?
The alternator (single alternator) was only 3 years old, which is 25K miles for me. My alternator apparently had the regulator fail. It would only do 12.3 at idle and 12.8 at 1500 RPM with no real load.
They warranted it for me. Voltage is now normal, but I want to swap a more reliable alternator in.
I don't want or need a huge alternator. I need something with a history of being more reliable in normal service.
I thought about that but don't know who does their rebuilding and how reliable they are. I guess I'll try one if this Ultima goes out.
Clearly the warranty is meaningless for quality. The O'Reilly Ultima alternator with a lifetime warranty can't be reliable if I've had two lifetime warranty alternators fail within 30k miles.
I don't want or need a huge alternator. I need something with a history of being more reliable in normal service.
If you want something reliable, you should buy an alternator sized to the load placed on it. An F-Series 6.0 can draw almost 100 amps at idle depending what factory options are turned on (truck only, doesn't count a trailer load), and the 110A or 140A OEM alternators aren't sized for that. You're going to keep killing them. I have two dead 110As and a dead 140A unit to show for the alt just not being sized correctly for how the truck runs, two of those were brand new factory installed OEM units. Unless you can tell us what your load is, then you can't say you don't NEED a bigger alternator, because odds are you aren't getting the output you need in the first place. At least put a 58mm pulley on a 140A replacement to give it a chance.
Reliability is a by-product of choosing the right component. Swapping 110A alts back into a 6.0 is like putting a 5A fuse into a 10A slot and wondering why it keeps blowing.