LUVTruck.com

bought an alternator from these guys. it was junk. wrong connector, didn't line up with the bracket, burnt diode. absolute junk. no vacuum pump even. bougth the correct one from napa and i'm sitting pretty now after losing 160 shells to these jokers. just thought i'd pass along the info.

I've never had a problem with them. Always got what I ordered, and usually days before I expected it. In fact, you are the first person I've seen mention them that didn't have nice things to say. The closest thing to a problem I've had was them splitting up a shipment because 2 parts were back ordered, but they sent what they could rather than hold the whole order. Being a diesel, you are fighting for parts that tend to be more obscure though. I found RA requires a little thinking sometimes on the less common parts as their listings are not always perfect. My local NAPA always requires more effort for me though, seems like I'm always getting their newbie when they're not looking for VW bug water pumps and muffler bearings.

I just looked at the RA listing for the 81 LUV diesel, they list a Beck Arnley 40 and 50 amp alt for $120-130 (+core) and they even have pictures for both. The 50 looks right, the 40 looks off and also like it lacks the vac pump. What brand/part number did you order from them? If you got that 40 amp and it didn't fit, they should suck it up and make it right, but that picture would have given me some pause.

when i first bought my truck it didn't have an alternator on it. so, i got to looking and pricing around and bought the 40amp from rockauto. when it came, it didn't have the right connector so i sent it back and ordered the 50amp. it also didn't have the right connector and no vacuum pump, as pictured. i found a pump second hand and figured i'd make the wiring work. after i found that the diode was burnt in it. i had already put it on the truck and couldn't return it so i had to use it for core at napa. (no, i didn't blow the alternator up, been there, done that!) my local shop is excellent. these guys have been at it a long time and are by far my best outlet for research on what's still available out there. although i was extremely happy to see a new vacuum pump come with the new alternator. (and lo and behold,...the right connector!) my moral is to stick with the sources i know are good. i tried to save myself 20 bucks and it ended up costing me twice as much as the cost of a napa alt.

Ah, sounds like there was more to the story than I thought at first. You are the first person I've ever heard a bad story from about RA though. I bet it is just the obscurity of diesel parts, they probably don't sell enough of them to have the parts down right. I've always had good luck using them for parts for my LUV and Isuzu.

It brings up a point on buying parts though, especially electrical parts. Be as sure as you can that you have the right part before you bolt it on, preferable before you break the seal on a bag it shipped in. (if it did) Most every place is bad about letting you bring/send it back if you so much as put a smudge on it.

Yha, most places I go to say " if the part you bought, is not the right part, you now have a spare"!!!!!! Bastards

[i]these guys have been at it a long time and are by far my best outlet for research on what's still available out there. although i was extremely happy to see a new vacuum pump come with the new alternator. (and lo and behold,...the right connector!) my moral is to stick with the sources i know are good. i tried to save myself 20 bucks and it ended up costing me twice as much as the cost of a napa alt.[\i]

I've never had anything but [i]bad[\i] luck with Napa electrical parts. Case in point, about 5 years ago, the starter (factory, I think) went out on my FJ40. A rebuilt from Napa cost about $100, but everything on the truck was built like I tank, lasted forever, and cost a small fortune. So I bought the rebuilt. It worked fine for about three months, then it wouldn't engage the flywheel. I replaced the bendix, but without luck. I had thrown my receipt out, so I took it in the shorts and bought another rebuilt. That, too failed after 3 months (But I kept the receipt). (At this point, I checked the flywheel and ring gear to make sure those were good. They were.)

Long story short, I replaced the starter 5 times over the course of 18 months. Finally, I got tired of lying on my back on hot asphalt, frozen puddles, thawed puddles, and all things in between. I bought an AC Delco $tarter, and I've had that in the truck ever since.

Sometimes you just have bad luck with something that works great for everyone else. It's the typical Ford/Chevy, Windows/Mac/Linux, or tastes great/less filling debate.