Ok, I dropped in some rapid fires today and changed out a bad alternator, and was cruising around a bit, after about 50 miles or so, I saw a bit of smoke coming from under the hood. I pulled into a gas station and popped the hood. My replacement autozone alternator was smoking, so I turned off the car and let it cool. I was checking connections and everything seemed fine. I was on my way back and no smoke, but at different rpms, the voltage drops to 12.4-12.2 volts. At idle, it goes to 13.7-14.2 volts. Did I somehow fry the alternator? Was the alternator bad to start with? Ideas please. Could it be something else I'm not thinking of? I know that this is a hard one but throw some ideas out there. Thanks

Since it's Autozone the first thing I'd do is just take it back and tell em' what happened. They'll replace it and you can troubleshoot from there.

I don't like Autozone but they usually have no issue taking almost anything back.

yeah, that was what I was going to do anyway. I don't really like them but I bought alot of parts from them when I worked for them. I didn't like the quality of some parts and went other places. It seems their hard parts are not that great. I will replace the alternator and see what is up. Anyone guess what the problem is? I don't want to replace the alternator all the time. Input please.

sounds like something is hangin up inside... the alt has a bunch of brushes inside that run around very fast which causes the alt to build a charge, one of these could be bad or installed wrong which is why ur getting smoking and voltage drop. only other thing i would think is that there is some fluid inside the alt and is burning off.

replace it and call it a day. Ive had good luck with "parts master" brand products, basically remanufactured stock stuff that i get from my local parts guy. he used to get his parts from "bumper to bumper" distributers. ive had one of these on for like 5 yrs and no issues

Did you get the cheapest rebuit alt.? I wouldn't doubt one of those would last only a few miles if you did, I prefer Advance parts myself and I get the lifetime warrenty new stuff, so in 5 or 10 years when it goes out I get a new one.

I got the lifetime warranty stuff because I didn't want to have to pay for it again if it broke. I'll replace it today and see what goes on now. It seems weird that an alternator puts out more power when it's at idle then when it is up to speed. Very strange.