I'm in a bit of a jam. My truck left me on the side of the turnpike last night & I'm in need of a new alternator. I don't want to pick up a junk one from AutoZone, so I found a rebuilder to fix up my Bosch one. I need to take a trip down to the towing place and pull it out to take to the alternator guy.

Can someone verify the sockets sizes I'll need for the belt tensioner and to remove the alternator bolts?

I'm at work now, but I'm hoping to scrounge together a few sockets to get the bad alternator pulled out.

Thanks!

 

guessing 10, 12, 14 & 16mm. I know the wires on the back are 10 & 12mm
Dont worry about the belt adjustment right now just pull the alt. out, you can worry about that when its going in.

 

You missed the 13. Pretty sure you need a 10 for the ground nut. I think the pos nut is a little bigger (drowssap says 12 which makes sense). Then there are the 2 front bolts which are both either 13 or 15. Pretty much bring 10-16 and you'll be fine.

Oh and a rubber mallet or pry bar because the spacers like to squeeze tight.

remember to disconnect the battery too so the pos wire doesn't ground and arc and explode after you leave.

 

Funny story time. So I had Grand Prix that had known issue with valve cover gaskets leaking and starting fires (eventually got a recall issued). So as preventive maintenance decided to fix them. Had to remove alt to get to the gaskets. My battery had top and side post. I used the top one to power my amplifier and that for some reason is the only one I unhooked. Took off the positive power wire to the alt and dropped it. It hits the metal fuel rail and arcs right through it and within seconds I have flames shooting out hitting the hood, curving around hood. I am in a detached garage so start running towards house to call 911 then see the water hose. Turn water on, grab hose and start running. Get about 20 feet and the hose catches on something and it stopping flings me in the air on my back. Get back up and continue running with it only for the fire to have burnt out by that point. Good thing was all it tore up was the fuel rail (30 bucks used) and some vacuum hosing. Lesson learned but yeah I created a car fire trying to prevent one.

On a side note. I replaced my alt back in January with factory replacement (not an autozone rebuilt one) that was used because old one was bad. I also replaced the battery with a new one. Now that the weather is in the single digits, when I start the car after sitting all night the battery light is on. All I have to do is blip the throttle and it goes away and doesn't return. I haven't checked anything yet but I figure it might be the used alt already getting weak. Thought??

 

15mm to move the idler pulley.

 

And a file.

I helped a neighbor replace his alternator a few weeks ago. The alternator fit very, very tightly in the mounting bracket. Ridiculously and needlessly tight. We used both a rubber mallet and a pry bar to get the replacement alternator in place. Next time I will use a file to shave down the mounting faces on the alternator to provide just a little more clearance before installation. Let the bolts hold the alternator in place.

The tools needed are a 15mm for the tensioner, 10mm for the smaller cable and 13mm for everything else.

 

Love the Fire Story.