I decided after getting my alternator tested last weekend at finding out it was only putting out 6 amps, that it was time to change that sucker. i've read nothing but horrible things about the removeable and install of the alternator. needless to say, i was quite surprised how quick we got it all done. outlawd svt and myself started at 9:15am today and had my old one out within an hour and a half. the process includes the following for whoever will need it in the future:
-Remove Passenger Tire
-Remove splash guard
-10mm swivelhead socket on a 10 inch extention will reach the dreaded top bolt from the bottom up.
-13mm swivelhead socket with a three foot, yes 3 foot extention will get the front bolt from the passenger side. we basically shot across the whole block and reached it from the drivers side, once removing the tire. its hard to get the torque but we managed
-13mm again swivelhead and lots of luck with get the rear bolt off. seems you have to be very creative to reach these damn things.
SPLASH GUARD REMOVED:
I couldn't believe it, but within an hour or so, we had the whole thing loose. next part scared me a bit. we had to undo the tie rod and other little support arm in order to get this sucker out. see pics....once you can get a big enough gap in there, it seems to want to just fall right out.
HALFWAY OUT:
i realized why my alternator might be junk, seeing as how theres a nice crack right on the side.
we waited a couple hours til demonsvt started work and went to autozone so he could hook me up on a sweet deal. i paid right about 150ish or so for the remanufactured alternator plus of course turned in the core. demon gave me a lil discount, thanks again....
back to the garage. things seemed like they were going way to well, so we knew something just had to go wrong. we were right. getting those bolts back in seemed to be quite tricky. one tip i can give is do not tighten the top bracket onto the alternator. tight, but not too tight. once we got it all in place, guiding the bolts was so tricky. we found that silicone inside the sockets was only thing that'd keep the bolts for falling out. after gettin the two longer bolts in, we couldn't get the top bolt in. realized that the bracket wasn't lined up right!! stuck a screw driver into it and ended up gettin it straight and everything all tightened. couldn't believe it went that smooth. sorry for the rant...hope this helps people in the future! thanks again outlawd and demon for your help and info!
