About two weeks ago my top radiator hose sprung a leak and was squirting coolant straight back into the alternator. Oh joy.

Now, as predicted, it has started to whine for several minutes upon start up. Voltage still ok, but I'm not holding my breath. Any way to re-lube / de-gunk it or should I just replace the thing? 85k miles on the original.

As far as I know alternators have a sealed bearing. The cannot be "re-lubed" That's weird because you'd figure alternators are made to withstand "wet" weather huh?. I would check/ replace the belt instead because that's most likely the cause of whining noise.

As far as I know alternators have a sealed bearing. The cannot be "re-lubed"--that's weird. I would check/ replace the belt instead because that's most likely the cause of whining noise.
I also am fairly sure this is true.

There's a difference between rainwater and coolant. Rainwater will just dry up and evaporate from the engine heat, whereas coolant leaves behind a residue that is somewhat conductive. It might not be a bad idea to pull the alternator and blast it with a hose to get as much of the residue out as possible, then allow it to dry before putting it back into service. If it's still noisy after that it should probably be replaced.

Will try the water blast method as a last ditch effort... I have feeling it got a good coolant soak & dry in the sun since i noticed it was leaking in the morning, let it sit all day, and got to checking out when i got back home.
No change in sound with A/C or power steering inputs so fairly certain who the culprit is :(