Thanks Marc, I was assured by the previous owner ( a co-worker and long time air-cooled VW Tech ) that this was a rebuild with new bearings throughout. It supposedly has a non-operational voltage regulator.
I'm new to Alternators, but everyone tells me that I should get the one with the "internal regulator"...I'm hoping that This alternator has the internal regulator ( I wouldn't want to buy a "brush-set" and still be without a working alternator.
I have been told by the Parts guy at the VW Dealer that the Motorola voltage regulators won't work with my unit...so I have to stick to Bosch.
Problem is, Bosch sometimes will use the same short number (like AL82) on two or more different products, which has made it so difficult to source the correct brushes and regulators that a lot of parts houses have given up. A regulator for a German alternator won't interchange with a Brazilian; there are at least two Brazilian units as well. The price of a new Brazilian-built alternator is so low these days that it's not too hard to upsell someone to a new one.
For example, http://www.actionimport.com/ has `em for $89
(Check out the picture there, note how much different the regulator/brushholder looks than on yours)
Even cheaper: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... p?id=99493
Here's an externally-regulated model, there's no confusing it with an internally-regulated one due to the three push-on connectors:
