Gen 4 5SFE alternator on a gen 3 5SFE

[Mike Gerber]

I recently had problems with a rebuild on my 94 Camry 4 cylinder 5SFE's alternator. After several attemps to rebuild the original unit resulted in vey short life each time, the alternator always smelled like it had been burned, just like the first time I brought it in. The last time it lasted only a day. After checking some books the rebuilder had in the shop and checking another alternator that looked brand new that the rebuilder had in the shop, he said why don't you try this one. It's a 90 amp alternator for the 97-01 Camry 4 cylinder engines. Your alternator is a 70 amp. The altenators were the same size. All connections were the same and the pulley was the same width and 5 rib belt design. The only difference was the pulley was about 1/16 of an inch bigger in diamenter. Not a problem. It's been on my car for about 2 weeks and a hundred miles and appears to be working fine. I was just wondering if anybody else has done this swap and what were the long term results.

Thanks for responding.

Mike

[SexieWASD]

I don't imagine that you will have any problems with the swap, our cars are not very picky about what alternator they have so long as it puts out enough power. I haven't done that swap, but I was running a very aggressively wound Ford 3G alternator and the car had no problems with it.

EDIT: unless something else that was killing the old alt kills the new one as well.

[Mike Gerber]

"EDIT: unless something else that was killing the old alt kills the new one as well."

I thought of that, so I took the battery out along with the alternator and took it in to an Autozone where they load tested the battery. They said it was fine. No internal shorts in the battery. All connections are clean and tight.

Mike

[Mike Gerber]

Anybody else have any thoughts?

Mike

[Mike Gerber]

I have heard of people running Highlander alternators on Camrys with high end stereo systems. Are these people running them on Camry 4 cylinders. If so, what are the long term results and does anyone have a picture of that alternator installed that they can post?

Thanks.

Mike