i wouldnt advise using anything but a brand new alternator bought from advance auto. i've gone through 3 or 4 of them because of various problems and got warrantee replacement on them all for free just a matter of a bit of a wait. and apparently its a lifetime warrantee so i will never have to buy another starter or alternator again.

problems i had were:

1) installing it too low on the bolt arm
2) installing it w/ the bolt arm at a bad angle so the belt scraped the side and eventually broke
3) breaking the belt on it and causing the alternator to operate improperly killing itself
4) having the belt too loose from too low on bolt arm and alternator killing itself when i rolled down both windows at once
5) installing the alternator with a shot battery and exceeding the ability of the alternator to compensate hence it killing itself (took a month or two to finally die)

so this past time i installed everything the 100% right way and now my panel lights aren't lit up all the time, my voltage on the gauge stays at 14 to 14.5 at all times even with lights on, the car runs better the console gauges light up to full brightness and its a whole new world!!!

but i'm still not going to try to roll down both windows at the same time ever again :/

the old alternators were bad enough but even the new ones aren't tanks