cleaning an oil soaked alternator

[mjeff87]

I finally got to change the front crank seal (and timing belt) on the Focus over the weekend.  There was oil slung all over the front of the engine/ firewall from the leaking seal, including the front half of the alternator.  I got the frame wiped off, but the windings are still dripping oil (and it's driving me crazy).  I think I already know the answer to my question but I'll ask anyway......is there any (good) way of cleaning the innards without having to pull it off and disassemble it?  It sits in an incredibly inconvenient spot on the engine (like most everything else on this thing lol) and I'd rather not deal with pulling it right now.  It's working fine, knock on wood, and I'm afraid if I tried to spray electrical cleaner into the windings I might end up screwing up the front bearing and end up HAVING to pull it off 'cause it died.  Theoretically, the oil inside it shouldn't hurt anything and I can keep driving it until it all eventually drips out.

 

Thoughts gents?

 

 

[yxmj]

Why can't you just pressure wash it? I car-wash my motors all the time and never had a problem.....and on my Xj's the alternator has been submerged on many of them with no ill effects.

Wash it with a car wash and blow it off with compressed air? 

[eaglescout526]

Can of electronics cleaner wouldn’t hurt it either. It’s designed to clean electronics like an alternator. Stuff is like pure isopropyl. Might choke you out. I know the MoPar stuff does that to me. 

[DirtyComanche]

6 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

Can of electronics cleaner wouldn’t hurt it either. It’s designed to clean electronics like an alternator. Stuff is like pure isopropyl. Might choke you out. I know the MoPar stuff does that to me. 

 

Oddly enough the company that rebuilds our starter-generators recommends against it.

 

They like clean water, or if it's really bad they say a mild soap and rinse it afterwards with clean water.

 

Their reasoning is the harder cleaners can soften or damage the brushes, and are much more likely to wash the grease out of the bearings.

 

Our starter-generators regularly explode though. 

[Money_Pits]

If you take it off, I would fill a spray bottle with dish soap and water, lightly spray it down, then use a hose with a restrictive nozzle to lightly wash it off. If you don't have a high pressure, low flow nozzle, you can hook a pressure washer but not turn it on to restrict the flow, so you don't wash out the bearings. Make sure you get all the soap out of it, shouldn't damage anything, but better to be safe. If the oil is baked on, then you can try more aggressive degreasers, but this should remove the still wet oil that you want gone. You might be able to do this with it still installed, but if the focus is anything like the ford five hundred, good luck with that.

 

If you've taken it off to clean it, and want to dry it before install, and don't have a compressor, I recommend taking a shop vac that you can reverse so it blows air and blow drying it off that way. All my heat guns get too hot for comfort, and my compressor only works when it feels like it, so I started using my vacuum instead a few years ago.

[mjeff87]

Thanks guys....

 

There's no way this alternator is coming off unless I need to change it out.  It is BURIED in there.  Short of using any kind of cleaner (or water), I think I'm just going to try using my 26 gallon compressor and a long airgun nozzle to try and spray the oil out.  I tried to get a pic of it from underneath but it's fuzzy (you can sorta see how oily the bottom of it is).  Another pic from the top of the engine, you can't  even see the alternator, but it's down in there....trust me.

 

 

[87Chief]

 

I'd just pressure wash it and let it dry for awhile.

 

[cruiser54]

Brake cleaner in copious amounts till it runs clear. don't let any sparks nearby. 

[gogmorgo]

You want to be careful with the brake cleaner, don't want to wash the grease out of the bearings. 

[mjeff87]

^^^yeah, that.

 

I cleaned it today, while I was replacing all the motor/tranny mounts.  I used QD Electronic cleaner and about 3 tanks of compressed air.  I've got pics to show but they're on my phone....I'll download them tomorrow and post them.  Fun day.

[cruiser54]

They should be sealed bearings in an alternator.......

[gogmorgo]

Yes, but the seals don't necessarily appreciate brake cleaner any more than the grease does. 

[DirtyComanche]

1 hour ago, cruiser54 said:

They should be sealed bearings in an alternator.......

 

Extremely low viscosity solvents pass right through those seals and then dissolve the hydrocarbon components of the grease.

 

Not to mention the brushes hate it too.

 

Whatever, he did it, but I wouldn't recommend it.  Contact cleaner is meant to clean connections, not rotating parts.

[cruiser54]

Serious?

 

I can't tell you how many starters I've cleaned out with brake cleaner!!

 

Didn't hurt the brushes, anymore than it would harm brake pads, caliper boots, caliper seals and the like.

 

And sealed alternator bearings? I sprayed them off, then popped the seal on one side and there was never any brake cleaner inside the bearing. Dry as a bone until I sprayed brake cleaner INTO the bearing to clean out the dried up old grease. 

[mjeff87]

Meh, it's done and clean.  Drove it all day yesterday and to work on the interstate this morning and it hasn't erupted into a big ball of flame, so I'm counting it as a win LOL.

 

It was pretty easy to access the front of it from above with the passenger side motor mount out of the way (which I swapped out, along with the driverside engine/tranny mount and the dogbone tranny/torque mount underneath).  Didn't get a before pic but here's the after/cleaned version: