streckfu's

Has anyone successfully R/R the alternator on a turbo without pulling the upper coolant line?

jerome951

Yep.

Once you get the alternator loose and the rear cover loose, standing in front of the car, tilt the rear of the alternator downward so the pulley is pointing upward. From there you should be able to rotate, tilt, wiggle, and force it through the cooling lines.

streckfu's

Suweet! I was hoping that would be true. Did you follow the Clarks Garage procedure for removing the belt? I'm wondering if it's really necessary to loosen the tensioner.....

jerome951

Yes, you'll have to loosen the tensioner on the AC or you'll never get the belt off the alternator (unless your belt is really loose).

hosrom_951

I just removed the whole coolant x-over to gain more room to use a ratchet.

Daniel : Be advised that the bottom alternator bolt has a nut on it's rear, you need to hold it while loosening/tightening the bottom bolt (unlike the top bolt that does NOT have a nut.....my case anyways).

jerome951

Good point Hos, that bottom bolt is a pain but can be reached from underneath w/ a wrench.

A set of ratcheting wrenches is also useful for the job, especially the top bolt which has almost no clearance.

streckfu's

Thanks for the info. I'm getting ready to make this the weekends job....

APKhaos

Daniel,
I've done this at the track - in the paddock - with a helper, in around an hour. Definitely no need to crack the coolant circuit. Its much easier if you have one guy below adn one above. The biggest bugger is getting all four nuts back on the alternator rear cover.

ehall

Daniel, without removing the coolant hose, I'd say you can do this alone in an hour or two. I used Clarks, and it worked fine, but I probably added an hour and a half r & r ing the coolant system. Keep in mind, the alternator, atleast on mine, is in there pretty tight. I used a pry bar to leverage it out.

streckfu's

I got it in and out in a couple of hours. It wasn't as difficult as I thought. Although, the car won't run now. It starts and then promptly dies. I'll explore that tomorrow.

streckfu's

Runs. It helps when I plug the MAF into a recepticle that actually has 12v.

Only issue is that it still seems low. I'm only registering 12.5v. Autozone tested it and said it was good. I'm not sure what to make of that.

ehall

Guage?

ehall

12.5 is certainly in the safe range. Mine reads a tad higher, but I used to run about 12.5. I then found my pos batt cable, occasionally arching.

hosrom_951

If you are getting only 12.5V then that is the battery voltage (anywhere between 12v and 12.5v).

Is the alternator warning light and the "!" light on?

streckfu's

Multi-meter. I'm reading 12.4 with the car running. Of course that could be because theres a decent charge on the battery.