Tuff Stuff 100 amp alt whistle

[Robj]

My son put a 100 amp Tuff Stuff alternator in his '74 Satellite and it had a shrill whistle when you rev the engine.

He sent it back to Summit and got another today and it does the exact same thing. It's really quite an awful sound. He has a serpentine belt set-up with aluminum pulleys. The old OEM style alternator with the same pulleys was quiet.

I think he was going to post on the B-body site tomorrow as well but thought I'd give everyone here a shot at it. At idle and low rpm it's fine. As you increase the revs it begins to whistle. At high rpms it really loud.

 

[340Duster247]

I know this is an old post but did you ever figure it out?

 

[Robj]

After this issue he saw negative reviews coming in so he gave up and bought a different brand which has been working perfectly. He brought the old one to a local rebuilder who said the bushing and shaft were not properly matched in size for what that's worth.

 

[72bluNblu]

Huh. I've got a couple of tuffstuff 100 amp alternators, one on my Duster with a serpentine set up and one on my Challenger with a v-belt. They definitely aren't the quietest alternators I've ever had, there's a bit more whine/hum to them than a stocker. But no shrill noisies when revving the engine.

 

[Robj]

Bad batch or new manufacturer for them? They sounded quite awful. You couldn't drive it without wincing. They had all good reviews when he first bought.

 

[KitCarlson]

Bad batch or new manufacturer for them? They sounded quite awful. You couldn't drive it without wincing. They had all good reviews when he first bought.

That sounds like a manufacturing problem. Things like stator winding errors, internal wiring errors, wrong diode placement, or stator lamination issues.