Pesty

Amateur guide to removing alternator assembly.

1) remove fan and alternator belt (refer to manual or rennlist diy guide)

2) I diss-connected my negative battery terminal at this stage as the wires to the back of the alternator would be live.
* note this way would lose the temporary DME settings after 15 minutes or so(DME Reset).
You could leave this step right up until ready to remove wires to alternator. After removal of alternator wires you could insulate them and re connect the battery so not to lose the DME setting. obviously disconnecting the battery again before removal of insulation and re fitting wires to alternator.

3)Remove belt break sensor. 1 cap screw. this was done so I could move the assembly forward thus giving more room to work on the rear of the unit. refitting is easy as there are two locating lugs.
see pic. Cap screw replaced to give idea of where it goes.

Pesty

4) remove 3 spark plug wires that go over top of fan housing from primary distributer. undo 2 cap screws from plastic wire guide. and swing out of the way. again to to help with access.
If they do not slip past the gap with the Air con unit at this stage (mine did just) they will the moment you losen the housing and move it slightly

Pesty

see picture of top of alternator assembly.

Red arrows show the 2 cap screws that enable spark plug cables to be removed for step 4

5) Undo cap screw pointed at with yellow arrow. remove cap screw completely and push straps to the side.

6)undo 3 bolts with washers marked in green.

The alternator assembly is now lose. you should be able to tip or move the unit forward and remove the plasic cover at the back of the fan housing. a little manoeuvering around the Air con tubes and its out.

Pesty

7) moving the assembly forward being careful not to stretch the wires at the back of the alternator. you will see a black plastic cap held on with 4 nuts and washers. Remove these(careful not to drop nuts, magnet retrieval tool handy) cap will pull off.

Pesty

8) If you have not already dissconected the negative wire from the battery now is the time to do so before removing any wires from the alternator.

looking from the fan side of the alternator at 9 o'clock you will see 1 brown wire. In my case held on with a cross head screw. remove this.
*Note my recon alternator unit did not come with the little black device fitted next to this wire. I had to remove it from the old unit and fit to the new. one screw and one wire that un plugs.

At 3 o'clock you will see 2 nuts. one large holding a on a thick red wire and one smaller *Black (looked black could have been green)wire. remove these nuts and release the wires.

The rubber gromet on mine was stuck onto the alternator and required a gentle tug to remove.

Pesty

The assembly is now free to be removed from the car.

See Rennlist DIY section for instructions how to remove fan and alternator housing.

Refitting is reversal of removing as they say. be careful to get the belt tension correct.

The job is not technically difficult or particulary complex. It is however fiddly due to lack of room to get to some nuts. On a car with more room it would have taken 5 minutes.
I had difficulty in refitting the cap/rubber grommet correctly. It was almost as if the wires were 1 mm too short. after a struggle it went on ok.

Pesty

This is the rubber grommet I had difficulty re locating. should look like this after refitting.

Pesty

Ok I think that about covers it. if anyone notices any mistakes please let me know and I will ammend it.
If the more technically minded out there think its ok can we add this to the diy section?

Smokin

Great write-up!... I need to take mine off so I can paint my fan!

chewg

Pesty,
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you..............

I just received my re-furb alternator and was just dreading the task, but your write up was just was I needed for a boost in confidence!

Now, if I can only find the 12-point triple square wrench........ and I'm off!

Great write up!

Pesty

chewg,
just made a little amendment. my recon unit had one piece missing. the black device near the brown wire(you can see it in the picture). I had to swap it over.

JasonAndreas

One thing you might want to add is that the mounting nut for the alternator cooling fan should be torqued to 14 Nm (10 ft-lbs) and to use loctite 270 (Loctite Red is a close equivalent) on it. If it gets loose it will become a small projectile. You might also want to clean up the wire connectors as whatever coating was used has most likely corroded by now.

Pesty

Thanks jason.
I did not add anything about removing the alternator from the housing because I took the whole lot up to my mechanic who swapped that out. I was there and Im pretty sure he didnt put any lock tight on that nut at the back. I will ask him.

Cleaning teh connectors. what would you recomend for this? I would probably use a bit of wire wool or something but I was weary of rubbing off the remaing coating thus accelerating further corrosion.

Mr.E

Chewg,
I picked up the 10mm 12 point triple square wrench at Napa. I can get you the part number if needed. After celebrating my find, I soon came to realize PepBoys and Kragen had the part in their tools section.
Turns out it's not too hard to find, once you know what you're looking for.

-Eric

jimq

the 12pt tool I bought at NAPA was to long! Might want to check it.