[Archived]

This is just a wild guess because I have no knowledge of your specific alternator or generator.

My guess is if you don’t have any loose pieces that can get into the alternator running the generator is unlikely to be an issue for the short term. There will be an imbalance but it is unlikely there is enough weight imbalance to ruin the bearings in the short term. There might be some loss of cooling, but if the alternator battery is in good shape and is not drawing the alternator’s full capacity that small loss of coolingt is likely to not be an issue.

If I were in your situation I would go to the local NAPA (apply for the card, use Prevost Community as the company name) and buy a replacement alternator. Use the current one as a spare. Alternators are cheap enough it likely is the best route rather than trying to buy parts.

Most of our coaches, but not all, are charging the alternator battery via the bus alternator(s) so if there is a concern about running the generator with a failing alternator fan it is likely possible you can just remove the alternator belt, but then you have to be sure the generator motor drives the pump without that belt or can with a shorter belt that does not drive the alternator. That would be a temporary alternative but only if you can be assured of driving the generator motor water pump and the alternator battery is getting charged via the coach.

[Bill]

Thank you so much the reply! I am really sorry though, I believe I have mis-identified the part that was giving me trouble. I called it the alternator fan, I know it’s a fan and I had thought after googling it that was what it was called. I will add some pictures to help shed light.

[Archived]

it’s not going to be easy. You will have to remove the generator end from the generator motor. I would call the manufacturer of the generator or someone like PowerTech and ask them if it would be a problem to run it like it is. This all depends on jow big a piece broke off.