On my newest 1996 80 it wasn't charging I assumed it was the brush set... pulled the alt. and pulled the brush set and they looked good so i pulled the rectifier plate and voltage regulator and with my trusty free harbor freight multi meter.. I tested the windings and got .7omh on each of the 3 windings just like the youtube guy said I should... there are several diodes in the rectifier plate and testing according to the internet I should get a reading one way pos to neg and no reading the other neg to pos... I got no readings which signifies a bad regulator... I also tested the charge rings? the 2 places the brushes ride on the shaft 5.8 ohm? anyway that also tested good... for info I happened to have an old (bad) alt off my 100 series... it is the exact same alt except for the pulley... I pulled the rectifier off of it... exactly the same... but it tested bad also... so I ordered one off ebay for $22 and we will see how it goes... if it works it will be a simple fix... won't save a ton of $ vs buying a rebuilt but we'll see... I had one of these denso alternators on a lx470 several years ago that would test good and only rarely leave my wife stranded... checked it out several times, replaced the battery, looked for parasitic draws ect... finally pulled the alt. took it to a local trusted rebuilder who rebuilt it for me ... who informed me that these are 3phase alternators and that I had 1 phase bad... which would in fact still test good in some cases and charge under light loads... but could not keep up at night with seat heaters on and the dvd going...
I agree and I did double check with my fluke, but I gather the cen-tech HF free gift meters so I have one in every tool bag and box... they are easy to use and have a larger display and they work... but it's funny that just because it was free (i guess) and i didn't get the one reading I wanted on the rectifier, I double checked everything with the fluke multi meter I keep just in my refrigeration/hvac box...
