Travis

The life of an aged vehicle offers unique opportunities to bond. Last Sunday, my wife was driving along minding her own business when she got the dreaded red battery/generator malfunction warning. Voltage immediately went down to 12v and things began to shut down shortly afterwards.

I was in Monterey attending a teen car control clinic with my son and it was a bit far to run up and find out what was going on. Fortunately, she made it home safely and on Monday, I got a chance to confirm the suspected failure. Yep, alternator is done.

Now, I searched and searched and there's a few posts about members who have changed them on their turbos, but none on a regular V8 CS. All in all, it's more or less the same, just less plumbing to deal with.

Just a word of warning, this alternator is positioned in such a place that makes it super awkward to remove. It's heavy, large and the space you're given is really small. 3 nights at 2-3 hours at a time and the deed was done, but wow, that was the toughest thing I've had to do yet on this P!G.

Thanks to MetaTron04955CTT for his post. It was very helpful in making this a successful project.

Photos!




There it is. In all it's glory, waiting to inflict untold misery for the next 3 nights.




Out! Took nearly 2 hours trying to figure out just the right angle to pull this bugger out of the fender well.





A bit of cutting to get the new boot onto the old plug. Old plug does indeed work with new alternator.




Parts list. Sonnen was the best deal I could find that had everything in stock.





In you go. A hair smaller, made this A LOT easier to plop in. This is about 90% complete. Still took a while to put everything back in, but it works!

Matt O.

Great post, thanks for the parts list!!

cormax

1. Order replacement coolant connectors
Parts: 94810605001
94810636201
I have twice found these to be completely desintegrated on removal. Should not cost more than about $75 for both and it's not worth your time to try to repair with liquid gasket and other ham jobs. Remember, leaks will affect the whole cooling system and you'll have to get the parts anyway and open everything up to replace them.

2. Removal / installation through the side 'hole' :
Do everything as described by Travis above, but I additionally disconnected one side of the motor stabilisor (mounting) on the top left of the motor. With a cheater bar (steel pipe), I was able to move the motor away from the chassis by a few cm and with the other hand wedge a soft wooden stake in place. A few taps with a hammer to drive it in a little bit for safety (fingers!). Be careful not to damage the cable running along the rocker cover seal.
Once that is done, the alternator will come out without any trouble at all. This saves lots of time, frustration and damage risk - not to mention your fingers..

Hope this helps.