so, i did an alternator swap this weekend.
i spent some time going over all the alternator-related posts beforehand. helped tremendously. i printed out ray's how-to and got busy.
i pretty much followed ray's procedure to the letter, with a few deviations. to express my appreciation for everyone's help, i'll post a little feedback for ray's how-to.
these represent my experience on my '98 v6 and may not reflect other's experiences.
1. i didn't remove the tie-rod end. it absolutely refused to budge despite all my best efforts. so i removed the stabilizer bar link rod upper connection (where it meets the strut). getting the alternator out and back in through this opening was relatively easy.
2. coil pack removal - the how-to states to use a 9/32 socket. i used a 7mm and found it to be a bit more snug, but this is a trivial point. both sizes will do the job.
3. the thick wire connector on the back of the alternator was a 10mm nut for me (how-to states a 7mm).
4. alternator pulley swapping (from original to replacement) was not covered in the how-to. this won't be an issue for many, as some remans come with a pulley attached already. my reman unit from ford ($180) did not. it would be nice to have some guidance or best practices to refer to when faced with this situation. this turned out to be a non-issue for me, because the ford unit was defective (binding while trying to spin the shaft) and i wound up buying an autozone unit ($165) which had a pulley attached.
again, many thanks to this forum for all the information and guidance contained within it. there's no way in hell i would've tried this without the how-to or other forms of guidance.
a few statistics:
total job time: 8 hours (took my time with many breaks - also weaseled in an oil change)
total cost: $165 for alternator + $40 for various tools, etc. (bought a few more extensions and swivels)
my dealership wanted $450 for labor alone. insane.
frustration factor on a scale of 1 to 10 - about a 7 for me.
