I want to powder coat my alternator. Do I need to take it apart, if so is there a trick to do it.

 

Yes and yes.

There is a trick to getting it back together because the brushes are spring loaded. So there is a hole that you stick a small rod through to retain the brushes for reassembly. The other thing is that you have to be careful where the powdercoating goes and you need to thoroughly dissassemble it because powdercoating taked 400 deg to flash the powder to gloss and you don't want to cook any of your alternator parts at that temp. You need to mask or otherwise prevent the powder from adhering to any assembled surfaces with close tolerances or you will have t scrape it out to get it back together again. Like the bearing surfaces - those you don't want to powdercoat because they are tight fits.

 

Thanks Kevin. Do you think the bearing and take the 400 temp and after the baking will i need to put new grease on the bearings.

 

Bearings are not rated to 400 degrees, dont even try it. Leaving the bearing in instead of pulling it in a couples minutes makes no sense at all.

 

These videos may help on disassembly and reassembly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riYZssdSmXY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKbX7mezuFM