Truck died last night

Was leaving after dropping my youngest off at her grandfather’s place last night, and it just died. Noticed just before it died, it was running a bit rough, and I could smell unburnt gas. Luckily, I was still on his property (farm) and coasted it off to the side of his driveway. Took my other daughter’s Tundra home who was also there.
It was getting late, so didn’t look into it, but did notice the battery light was on. Thinking about it, I noticed that last week, it would make a bit of metal rattling sound at start up. I checked the oil at one point, and it was fine, so dismissed it. Now thinking the alternator might have quit. Since last year shortly after purchasing the truck, we replaced the battery, and again under warranty. Also, after a few days of sitting, sometimes the truck wouldn’t start. I suspected the alternator might be going a long time ago, but I’m a bit baffled as to why it seemed to be sufficient to keep the truck going this long. Will dig into it more shortly. Will drop in a spare fully charged battery so I can drive it back home (15 min drive) and report back.

 

295K kms.

 

FYI. When we say "alternator" we often really are referring to the primary wearing part of the alternator: the brushes. A $25 part that can be replaced inside the alternator. It does require removing the alternator. It does NOT require you shelling out a crap pot of money. As a point of reference: my 1997 T-100 is on its second set of replacement brushes (8,000 miles ago) and am now at 270,000 miles on the original alternator.

Here's what that part generally looks like:

 

Good to know. Appreciate the feedback.

 

Here’s a link to an alternator rebuild kit.

https://alternatorbrush.com/products/alternator-rebuild-kits-2010-2014-toyota-tundra

 

Thanks. Just got back home with the truck. It started with the spare battery. Charge light was still on, and gage was about halfway between 9V and middle line. Then about halfway home, charge/battery light went out, and gage went to just below the middle line like it is normally. Really strange, but will still look into the alternator.

 

You should probably check the condition of the belt tensioner as well, bearings might be on the way out and that might be the sounds you heard.

 

Took a while to get to it. Got a new alternator and tensioner pulley from CarQuest, and the belt from the dealer. Parts guy from dealer said not to get an aftermarket belt due to quality, and price was the same. Will also replace the rad at the same time which I purchased a few months back. Also got new rad hoses from the dealer. IIRC, I saw an episode of the Car Care Nut mentioning sticking with OEM rad hoses. Will start the teardown later today.

 

I’d use the Denso alternator and Dayco tensioner so you aren’t doing this again in 6 months.

180k miles is pretty good quality.

 

Couldn’t source one locally. Supposedly a life time guarantee. Toyota parts guy quoted me approx CAN$850. Told me the rebuilt ones are all the same. The “CarQuest” one is BBB Ind. paid about CAN$475 (with core). Could have ordered this one or a Denso from RockAuto for CAN$250 and CAN$350 respectively, but when you factor in shipping (incl the core), there are no savings.

 

Is there a shop near you that can rewind your alternator? Definitely a lost art but those shops do exist and usually put out pretty reliable products

 

Yeah. I had them rebuild my Ford flathead alternator and a Tundra alt that I installed in my 97 LX450. Not cheap, but probably less expensive than what I paid. I wasn’t really happy with the rebuild they did my flathead alt, so…

 

Ok now we need pics of this flathead and of course what it's in

 

Haha!

I’m building a tribute to Richard Scaldwell’s GN Jap. Petro Shekhter created his own tribute with a beautiful 3D rendering. I’m going to build it as a single seater as per Petro’s model. Richard’s 5L air-cooled V8 is only one of 3 in existence, and the only one working. So, instead of that, I decided to use a Ford flathead V8 kinda keeping with a pre-war (WW1) feeling although it came out much later in 1932. Still a lot to do…

 

I finally got to it today. I’ll post some pics in my build thread.