Denver CORE offroad park... electrical failure

[T4RFool]

Decided on sunday that a buddy and i would head up to denver CORE offroad park to see what it was like. i live in colo springs so its a 2 hour drive away. when we got there the park was mostly flat with a few areas of interest like the steep hill climbs and the rock park and of course the mud pit, which we decided to hit first.
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the mud pit was fine, no one had gone through it yet so we had to stir it up a bit before it was really much for mud

after we had our fill of the mud pit we decided to venture around a bit and came across the steep climbs

it was right about here where everything started to go wrong....

after i parked it i realized that my alternator was not charging. me and my buddy sat there and talked about it for a bit then decided to go drive around for a little bit to see if it work itself out. it didnt. finally after about 10 minutes after finding out that it wasnt charging and driving around on the dirt track we decided that the alternator is going to start working again and decided we needed to head back to town where we could pick up an alternator. 40mi away. i decided that i would just drive as far as i could get before it died and have my buddy take me to the auto store in his jeep. after about 35mi amazingly it died, i thought it never would lol. went and picked up the alternator at the store and returned to put it in only to realize that it wouldnt fit. it was about 1mm too wide for the bracket and the crash sleeve on the bracket wouldnt move. after about an hour of trying to get the damn thing to fit we finally went and bought a file to file it down to get it to fit. anyway, finally got it to fit and made it home to colo springs.

now what i cant figure out is why the alternator would have gone out, its only 2 or 3 months old. i have had a similar issue with my alternator failing because i went through some liquidy mud holes. why would it do this though? also found out this morning that the windows wont roll down for some reason. another electrical related mystery....

 

[J-money$$$]

Alternators hate water, your best idea would be STAY OUT OF THE MUD.

 

[T4RFool]

there isn't a good way of waterproofing them? i wasn't originally going to go through the mud but i couldn't resist lol had to go through at least once

 

[Nelsonmd]

there isn't a good way of waterproofing them? i wasn't originally going to go through the mud but i couldn't resist lol had to go through at least once

Wrap it in a plastic walmart bag.

j/k, don't do that. If you aren't submerging, then maybe you could fab a little guard for it, just to keep mud from splashing on it.

 

[J-money$$$]

Wrap it in a plastic walmart bag.

j/k, don't do that. If you aren't submerging, then maybe you could fab a little guard for it, just to keep mud from splashing on it.

thats actually not a bad idea if your dead set on mudding. I just stay out of the bogs... There really is no way to waterproof them, since the case has slits in it to keep it cool

 

[T4RFool]

i think im going to just stay away from the mud in general, i wasnt originally going to go through it originally but i couldnt help myself lol

now i gotta just figure out my windows not going down issue. for some reason my driver side window will go down but all other windows including the rear window wont go down, its strange. checked all fuses and they all are fine so its gotta be something else

 

[T4RFool]

ok im a dummy. i figured out the windows issue. apparently while i was getting the new alternator installed my wife let my son crawl around in the truck and he pushed a bunch of buttons, apparently he pushed the window lock button which i had forgotten all about because never use it

 

[techno]

This weekend at Rausch Creek, I was laughed at when going through a big mud hole. Everyone else charged through trying to make the biggest splash, but I crawled through barely making a ripple. This thread is exactly why.

Perhaps you could check out some websites deicated to mud bogging racing or similar. They might have suggestions for protecting the alternator.

One other thing you can do is drench the thing in WD40 before driving in. You might also be able to salvage your dirty alternator by simply giving it a real good clean out.

 

[T4RFool]

i plan on crawling through water/mud holes from now on. 2 alternator failures is enough, i've learned lol i plan on giving the old alternator a good clean and tear down to hopefully get it working again

 

[Nelsonmd]

This weekend at Rausch Creek, I was laughed at when going through a big mud hole. Everyone else charged through trying to make the biggest splash, but I crawled through barely making a ripple. This thread is exactly why.

Perhaps you could check out some websites deicated to mud bogging racing or similar. They might have suggestions for protecting the alternator.

One other thing you can do is drench the thing in WD40 before driving in. You might also be able to salvage your dirty alternator by simply giving it a real good clean out.

Do the flammables in WD-40 evaporate immediately? I assume there is some sparking in the alternator and I'd hate to st my rig on fire. I've heard this before, but I never really thought through the flammability issue.

 

[T4RFool]

i dont think that they evaporate immediately but i do know that WD-40 isnt as flammable as it used to be. they have reduced its flammability. its difficult to ignite the newer form of WD-40. i have used it on my alternator before and havent had any problems with it.

 

[Nelsonmd]

i dont think that they evaporate immediately but i do know that WD-40 isnt as flammable as it used to be. they have reduced its flammability. its difficult to ignite the newer form of WD-40. i have used it on my alternator before and havent had any problems with it.

Good to know. I'm sure that will come in handy at some point.

 

[Duhockey]

another reason a snorkel seems more and more like a cosmetic mod...

if you go high enough to use it, you are gonna toast your alternator.

 

[T4RFool]

thats one of the big reasons why i havent gotten a snorkel yet, you can only go as deep as your alternator... actually no, if your still running your clutch fan you will shread that before the water level gets to the alternator... i've experienced this and its not fun

 

[T4RFool]

You might also be able to salvage your dirty alternator by simply giving it a real good clean out.

UPDATE: i tore the bad alternator apart and cleaned it really well, wiped out all the gunk and gave it a good lube, put it back in the truck and its officially toast lol gonna go return it today as the core for the new one i had to buy

 

[KellyJ]

This weekend at Rausch Creek, I was laughed at when going through a big mud hole. Everyone else charged through trying to make the biggest splash, but I crawled through barely making a ripple. This thread is exactly why.

Perhaps you could check out some websites deicated to mud bogging racing or similar. They might have suggestions for protecting the alternator.

One other thing you can do is drench the thing in WD40 before driving in. You might also be able to salvage your dirty alternator by simply giving it a real good clean out.

Hey, I made a pretty big splash and my alternator still works great :flipoff: haha. But I do agree, mud/water really doesn't mix with any engine.

 

[T4RFool]

i took a closer look at my engine bay on the alternator side to see where the water might be coming in. there are some large gaps in the fender well between the suspension components and the engine bay, some of that is because of the body lift, im gonna try to close up some of those gaps when i get the time and see how that works to keep the mud and water out

 

[techno]

another reason a snorkel seems more and more like a cosmetic mod...

if you go high enough to use it, you are gonna toast your alternator.

Have you seen the results of water in a combustion chamber? More than 10x the repair cost of an alternator.
Everything is cosmetic if you don't use it for its intended purpose.