You don't even need to be all that handy for this DIY. First, my alternator shop told me that the Nippo is the best he has seen and he has yet to find one with a bad bearing. While I had it out I was going to refresh the bearings and he said "no". He told me he had some brushes for my alt and found some on a very dusty shelf in a very dusty bag. 5 bucks cause he has had them so long. So far so good.

My alternator was dripping ATF from the Pwr Strng pump and it had been soaking for 3 months while I did more important stuff like coil overs. I had written it off when I first spotted the oil. While at the shop I had a thought. ATF shouldn't hurt an alt except for goofing up the brushes. Mt alt rebulder agreed and added that the oil acts like cutting oil and lets the brushes wear really fast and wear down the armature slip ring. Armed with this news I removed the alt and was way pleased to find that the brushes and rectifier were located under a sheetmetal can on the outside of the alternator and I wouldn't even have to crack the case. Happy!

The brushes were full of oil and had dust clumped around them. I sprayed everything out with brake cleaner and got everything deoiled. Thats when I learned a hard lesson that I will share with you now. Brake cleaner was recommended by my rebuilder because it is not flamable and is residue free. It is also a solvent that gets absorbed by the soft rubber like plastic in the connectors and dust shields. They swelled up and I couldn't get everything back and connected. Bummer! It dries out in a day and all is well now. Use elect contact cleaner instead of brake cleaner. The job cost me 5 dollars but you will probably spend 20 for the same part. It is a myth that the rectifier should be changed at the same time.

This job only requires a phillips screwdriver after you get the alt out of the car. I didn't check but I heard that Lex gets $500 for this item. Suit yourself.

Happy trails

John

 

same problem as me the pump gets dripping and dripping and dripping...replaced the pump 2 times!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 brand new ones from lexus thank god under warranty...replace both hoses the left and right...now my racket pins are leaking! and that crap costs a lot...in the middle of all this...my battery light came on signaling my alternator aint charging the battery! it kept going on and off on and off thought it was just a mess up car ran fine...here we go one lovely evening im down the street...cd player turns off....wtf!?!?!? windows slowly going up "here we go its dying" barely makes it up the hill till i get in a parking lot...car just dies...(this is my sc400 btw not the 300) call triple A, hour and a half they still havent came...screw them...try and get lucky...i hit the gas all the way start hte car i drive like 5 miles and u can like slowly hear it dying...the second it turned off i had finished turning my wheels on the hill i parked right infrontof my fellow lexus specialist bada bing bada boom new alternator

 

Say it ain't so Joe, the alt lite started coming back on. Why is it always an adventure? Why can't it ever be "just a job"? I pulled my alt in short order and got it apart. I missed the fact that the slip rings were worn through to bakelite and totally shot. They were ok on one side showing copper but the bakelite was visable from the other side. Maybe in my defense, I could'a missed it for reasons other than only having one eye. Gave it to the rebuilder and he had it back in an hour. He REPLACED the slip rings. Hear that . $60 and he is now my brother.

Lesson: I had been unbolting my alt with it in position caus it would not slide out so I could get to the B+ term. The wires are stiff from age or ATF BUT they are long enuf to slide the alt out into the open space in front of the alt posit to uncouple it. Soooooo. You don't need to remove the PS pump drive pulley to get a wrench in there to uncouple the alt.

My Lex quit as I was turning into my drive and she coasted to the exact spot where I usually park her and stopped without my applying brakes. Dead bat! Hows that for a Lady?

Good luck

John