I went out to start my D2 yesterday and it was dead. I had been driving it earlier that day and it did jump start. I drove it to the gas station and back and when I shut it off it would not start again. I just had the alternator fixed, not rebuilt, and I can't remember the name of the part he replaced. It was taken to a reputable guy who has been doing this longer than I've been living but it was the first time I've used him. I am assuming that it is the alt again but I can't take it to the parts place to be tested because the battery doesn't have enough of a charge. My question, is there anything that could be killing the alt or am I just having the usual alt pains? Also, when taking the alt out, the rave manual says to remove the belt but I would rather not, is this possible and what is the best way? BTW: I had my bat tested a couple of weeks ago and it was fine. Thanks Jay

 

I'm not sure what is draining your battery but if you want to remove your alternator your belt has to come off. It's pretty easy to do, just takes a few seconds.

 

How is that? According to the rave manual you have to remove the fan and such to get to the tensioner and it would be kinda crazy to reroute the belt through all of that... Looks like it would take longer than removing the alt. I was thinking that after the bolts were loose the belt would have enough slack to remove the alt but getting it back in would require some ingenuity... I was thinking I could just put the lower screw back in and use a pry bar to lever the alt back into place with the correct tension. Any thoughts?

 

The alternator comes off without removing the fan. So does the bracket it's mounted to, for that matter.

Take your lever and pry the tensioner just below the alternator toward the battery side. The fan belt should loosen up enabling you to remove it from the alternator pulley.

Then, remove the two bolts holding it to the bracket. You might need to slightly pry the alternator to free it.

Be careful with the connectors when undoing the wires. I broke the rectifier lug off mine.

 

Re-read the rave instructions but if you try to remove the alternator with out first removing the belt it is going to come off anyways (you don't have to take it all the way off obviously). The belt is under tension and the alternator pulley is on the belt. It takes 10 seconds to take the belt off and maybe 30 seconds to put it back on even if you are replacing it, it is easy.

Like said above you do not need to take off the fan.

 

Ok I will reevaluate the rave manual and see if I can figure out what is being said here. Another question though is, once the belt is off does it want to kinda stay in place or does it pop off and require rerouting?

 

The first step in the Rave CD alternator repair instructions is this:

1. Remove auxiliary drive belt.
+ CHARGING AND STARTING,
REPAIRS, Belt - auxiliary drive.

 

Yeah that's what had me thinking I need to remove the fan. If u click on that link the first step is remove the fan assembly.

 

Yes you can skip that part unless you want practice for when it really matters (front engine cover, head gaskets etc). The fan is not hard to get off it just takes some practice. The belt comes off easy though just put a socket on the tensioner nut and put a short socket extension on so you can clear the fan itself, then turn the tensioner bolt to the right (it is spring loaded), this will loosen the belt and you can slip it off the alternator then if you let go of the tensioner it should keep the belt on the rest of the pulleys if you are worried about putting it back on correctly.

 

Thanks, that makes sense. I guess I will tackle this as soon as I have time. When I turn the socket to the right am I loosening the nut or just moving the tensioner?