[Dan Case]

Originally Posted by Thor maine

Just a question, if a guy had a Cobra and the alternator went south in and the guy went to the Ford dealer and had a new one put in would it have the "Autolite" stamp on it? And if a guy had a factory correct alternator put on by a Ford dealer is that not a "correct "alternator?

Trick questions.

So depending on who is asking and answering, correct can mean 100% like production or a factory authorized replacement. One is new car production historically correct and one is functionally correct could be another way to answer. Ford wise, generators and alternators were used to make new cars under one set of specifications and engineering numbers and service parts were made, numbered, and marked differently. I had my first education on this in 1969 when the service manager of our state's largest Ford dealer showed me how they could tell the difference in production and service electrical parts on new Fords. He directed me to a car in the service bay a customer was making a warrantee claim on. The claim was being denied because the failed part was marked as a service part. The manager told the customer to take the car to whoever installed the service part and get them to fix their problem but he wasn’t going to charge Ford for post production repairs the Ford production plant didn't do.