JoeZam

Hey all,
I am stuck and need some help. Followed Bentley manual to get car into "service position", but it never mentioned anything about the auto tranny cooler, which prevents it from hinging over to the side.

I do have almost enough room to work with, despite this. But the bolt that holds across the top of the alternator seems to be rounded without a way to loosen it. Am I missing something here?

How do I get these swapped out?

Thanks for the help

audifirst

I have found only way to remove the alternator I did it twice is to move to service , you should swing to passenger side, I didn't have to disconnect cooler lines, but you don't need to swing just enough room to reach the alternator bolts, possibly one of them is stripped , I would get the bolt removal , sears has it, Napa might have it

JoeZam

Thanks for the reply. I'll try finding a bolt removal tool. Also, I think I can only really hinge from the driver's side as there are a ton of wires that are on the driver's side and a lot more to disconnect.

Airbag

actually to do any real hinging you need to drain the coolant and swing the rad out which is a pain , should not be necesary .. service position means only pulling it forward about 6- 8 inches for access .. two long bolts put in place of the bumper shock bolts should do this

any hoo.....
you do hinge at the pasenger side then the cooler can be taken off with two screws and draped out of the way ... you don't have to undo any connectors really .. the whole block of connectors should lift up off the fender and the whole thing moves .. should give you plenty of swing without diconectine any of them ...


good luck ..

JoeZam

Well I did drain the radiator...I just don't see how to disconnect that entire block on the driver's side to get the wires out of the way yet. I'm still amazed at how much work is required to change out an alternator.

JoeZam

Ok, well the bolt wasn't stripped, it was just an allen that had too much crud on it to see what it was. That explains the perfectly rounded corners lol.

Any advice on the tensioner?

JoeZam

Figure I'd summerize today so anyone else looking to do this will have an idea of the issues and solutions I've encountered.

Well the tensioner takes a 17mm and you turn it clockwise to twist it loose. Mine had some built up sludge (170k miles) so it was a bit hard to turn, thus the need for advice. Just some extra torque and the belt was easy to remove.

Old alternator came out easily enough. Was a little bit of a pain maneuvering it in it's "home" to gain access to the wires in the back. The new alternator, however gave more problems. I had to open up to two top mount brackets with a hammer so it'd fit.

But once in, everything else started coming together well enough, until it was too dark to continue working. Will finish up tomorrow and see if it all works now.