How do i clean the alternator?

My head gasket has probably seen better days, and i have the apparently common little leak of oil down onto the old alternator.  Would it be possible to clean the thing with carb cleaner ? ie something to make life a little easier. I want to clean it up a bit as i've heard they die after being drowned in oil for too long….

You could try steam cleaning the alternator. As for the head gasket leaking are you sure its not the cam cover gasket. The common problem causing oil leaks is often the oil breather on the back of the engine block, these get blocked and cause oil leaks from all over the place.

Hi Sneak - i'm faily sure ite the head, but i will look into the cam cover too. The oil breather does cough a little oil up into the airbox, but its a fairly small amount that i can live with. I think i will do the head gasket soon though for the fun of it !!
I think i'm gonna use some brake cleaner on the alt, as apparently carb cleaner could dissolve some of the plastic coatings inside it.

Well good luck with it mate, let me know how you get on.

brake cleaner did the trick, it looks grand now. and more importantly, it still works. Hopefully i've made its life easier, as it looked like it'd been dunked in oil!