Can anyone kindly tell while standing at the front of the car looking at the alternator pulley, with the engine running which direction does the pulley turn clockwise or counter-clockwise?

 

I installed a new aftermarket alternator. Followed the procedure of removing negative terminal first before starting the job. I changed the idler pulley and installed a new belt too. Once done I started up the car and it was extremely loud and screaching and whining. I went to the engine bay then it looked like what appeard to be the alternator smoking. Lots of smoke coming from the alternator. I panicked and turned engine off and disconnected negative to be safe. Now I am a little concerned as to what exactly happened? Faulty alternator? problem with new idler pulley or new belt install. The idler pulley spins freely when I tested it. The belt is routed correctly and seems to be installed fine. The alternator pulley spun fine without the belt before i installed it. I'm wondering if i should try and start it again and see if smoke continues or disappears?

 

Not looking but it turns clockwise. Another way to think of it is the tensioner will always be on the return side to the crank. Never on the load side or pulling side. IIRC the AC compressor and alternator are two loads where the belt is being pulled towards the crank. Make sense?

Also, why are you asking? Just curious...

 

Thanks, I've posted another thread about smoke and squeal I'm getting after new alternator install so I want to remove the belt and spin the alternator pulley by hand in the correct direction and see if there is any resistance.

 

IIRC the alternator is driven with a Sprague clutch. Unlike the past, it's not just a stamped pulley, it's a one way clutch. Basically if you abruptly decelerate, the alternators rotor is not acting on the belt and can keep spinning at a higher rate than the pulley speed. It's called an over-run clutch... You should feel this if hand spun. No resistance one way and the other ways spins up the alternator.

 

On my old alternator although it hasn't failed yet and I'm just changing it to be safe when I spin by hand both directions it spins. And there is a sort of turbine blade right inside that I can see spinning. How do I know if clutch is working? I read somewhere that you can hold the turbine blade with a flat screwdriver and it shouldn't spin on one direction and spin in the other direction but when I tried that it doesn't seem to spin either direction maybe doing something wrong 🤔

 

That ain't right. Was the smoke burning rubber or electronics?

 

I saw your other thread. You should have a mod merge these.

I'm not sure when they implimented the clutch system but it may not have been a thing in 07.

You can post a picture or look for yourself, but non-clutch units are a stamped pulley w/Not much going on. Super thin w a nut in the center. The clutch units have a cover hiding the nut and will be bulkier inside.
One quick test is to spin it briskly clockwise by hand and then grab the pulley with gloves to stop it.

Clutch unit, no cover...


Regardless, not the source of your trouble. I'd pull the alternator and get it exchanged. There are too many expensive electronics on board to be damaged by a defective alternator.

 

Thank you, yes my one definitely has a bulky end on the pulley and is covered with a cover so there is no exposed nut. The replacement one I got also has a plastic cover but slightly different in design. The OEM one has a cover that looks inserted whereas this aftermarket one has a cover that is clipped on over the top.
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Like you said, regardless of clutch pulley or not I shouldn't have the problem I had. Plus if the replacement alternator is marketed as a compatible part with matching OEM reference numbers then technically it should also have clutch pulley.

 

Did you see this ^^^ ?

I ask as there is chance something got dropped into new replacement alternator and jammed it up. Then when off, it dropped out and moved. If suspect of jamming up, pull the belt and look for melt marks and burns inside the belt at the ribs.

 

Oops missed that 😁. I panicked when I saw that much smoke so I turned off the car and disconnected the negative straight away. I inspected the main fusible link because if the alternator had shorted or so it would most possibly had blown the fusible link but that's all intact. From what I saw it looked like it was coming from the alternator itself. The smell reminded me of the smell I got when my electric pressure washer pump toasted many months ago. When my pressure washer pump packed up a while back it started smoking. And this smoke was exactly like this. Looked very much like the smoke was coming from inside the alternator but I can't be 100% because I kwickly turned off the car

also, It wasn't just the smoke, the first instance when I started it the noise was very loud. I managed to get a audio clip from my surveillance camera on the other side of the house. Which you can hear it on and it was much louder than this close-up. Here is a link to the audio track
https://soundcloud.com/john-roberts-867820707/pulley/s-XOBItqmjNEJ

 

Wholly Crap Batman, that is one seriously pissed off alternator! I don't startle for much, but that would do it!!!

Ya, take that out and catapult it to sun!

(MP3 SoundCloud)

 

This site dislikes SoundCloud... well until you quote it...

 

I've ordered a Genuine Denso one now but not the official Lexus Denso but the Denso part that is sold by Denso as aftermarket. Ive initiated an eBay return for this one. Before I installed the alternator I did spin it by hand many times both direction and it seemed to spin freely except ocassionally I would get a scratching kind of sound. After installing it and experiencing the noise and smoke I was doubting myself thinking maybe I installed the belt wrong or something. But i've checked the belt over and over again and it seems 100% correct. I've changed the belt once before and it's not that difficult. I've tried to take a few pics of my belt below, it's hard to get it all in one photo. Can you see the pic to see if it looks right to you? Someone else mentioned after listening to the audio track that the sound definately sounds like a mechanical instead of rubber belt squeel/slip

Before all this my previous alternator and everything was super quiet. I changed 3 things in this job: the Idler pulley with a NTN Japan pulley, a new genuine OEM belt, and this questionable unbranded aftermarket alternator. So it could be one of those 3. But the idler pulley spins freely but not as loosly as the old one but then the old one was knackered. The belt i've attached pics of and it's OEM so unless I got belt route wrong then I cant imagine it being the belt.

 

That is not a slipping belt. Definitely the squeal of alternating current under high load. It likely has several bad diodes that are shorted, thus all the energy is making heat instead of DC energy to power the vehicle.

The kicker is, with bad diodes it not only drains the system parasitically, it also ramps up the field coil current to make more Output that perpetuates its own destruction. Get a new one. Belt install is fine. Alternator is junk!