Howdy All,

New to this Forum, hope someone will be able to give me some guidance on this:

The replacement alternator on my '87 740GL automatic stopped charging, so I went off to a local scrapyard having the nearest thing to a Volvo 740 in it, which happened to be a 940 Turbo Estate. The alternator and engine looked lovely and clean but the instruments had been removed from the dash, so I couldn't tell the mileage.

As you'll know the 940 alternator is mounted high up on the left side of the engine (left, looking from the inside of the car, that is), while the 740 alternator is mounted low down on the right side. The distance between the mounting lugs looked the same, so I bought the 940 alternator and brought it home. After fitting the 940 unit and wiring it up as per the old one, I started up the car and after a very short time noticed an interesting hot rubber smell and some wispy smoke appearing, but I couldn't see where from. The alternator itself wasn't moving at all, indeed it seemed to be wanting to go in the opposite direction to that of the engine! Of course I stopped the engine immediately and disconnected the battery.

I have to admit to being able to effortlessly blow up, burn up or otherwise ruin almost any electrical appliance of any kind. Some people shouldn't go near electrical things and I'm one of them, but being pretty well broke most of the time, needs must, I'm afraid.

Now I'm left with a non-running car and, it would seem, an incompatible alternator.

Any ideas about what I need to do next? Be as blunt as you like, I can take it!

Sven

 

If it looked exactly the same then it should have worked.
They both spin the same direction. Was the new one spinning freely before you installed it?
Maybe the pulley offset is different and something is hitting somewhere?

 

Many thanks for this, Tech. Sorry to have taken so long to respond, but my PC went the way of the alternator a few minutes after my posting! Got it back yesterday evening, so I'm able to thank you at last. The problem has been resolved by having the old alternator repaired and I have reinstalled it as before. All well now.

Thanks again.

Sventhevolvo.

 

Glad all is good now.