Hi. I'm the new owner of a '97 Cl 3.0. Love the car -- it's been good to me -- until now. The alternator's acting up (unless someone else knows what would turn my battery indicator light on, dim the lights at night, cause the tach and speedo to stop working and abs sensor to come on all the time, all of the sudden). So now, to save money, I'm going to try and replace the alt. myself. Has anyone done this before and is there a step-by-step floating around out there? Any special tools I'll need? How long should I plan it to take? Thanks in advance for any help/hints/tips/advice!

You can post something here or email me directly -- MAIstook@aol.com. Thanks again!

 

Here 'ya go: http://public.fotki.com/dustbuster4/...r_replacement/

After clicking on each individual picture, click on "Get Original Uploaded Photo" for a large sized version.


BTW: I never bought the "Belt Tension Relsease Tool". I just used a ratchet (actually a torque wrench) to release the tension to get the belt off.

 

How did you get the torque wrench and socket to fit in the space for the tension pully? I just looked at mine and there's like 1-1 1/2" space.

 

I highly recommend buying the special pully tension release tool. They carry it at Pep Boys. If not, you can try what I did and that's fitting a wrench on the nut. You'll have a hard time getting leverage this way -- partly because the pully tension is high and also because there's just not a lot of room to manuever the wrench. I was fortunate -- the jack I use has a 2-foot metal tube that's used as the jack handle. I took the tube off and fit the open end on the top of the wrench (acting as an extension of the wrench), which gave me AMAZING leverage. I wish I'd thought to do this when I took my alternator out. It made the job of getting the belt back on the pullies incredibly easy.

 

This was great information guys thanks for the link just what I needed. I was about to take the entire radiator out.

 

I had the worse time taking mine out. Of course I used no manual. I used a breaker bar to release the tensioner. I did however get air in my power steering and its still making noise to this date.

 

Hey gang I always appreciate everyones help. My alternator just crapped out on me and I bought a new one at autozone no problem. I asked the guy about the tension tool and he said you dont need it. So I figured ok sounds good and made it home barely as my car stalled on my block(good times!!!) The guy mentioned just to losten the bolts a bit on the alternator and turn it a little to get the belt off. I have not tried this yet as I am waiting for the car to cool down a bit but does anyone have any other suggestions or tips on how to get this done as it looks like once u get the belt off the rest of the project is pretty easy. All the other bolts should come off with a socket wrench correct? Any info would be huge as I need to get this done today as I am stuck here!!!! AHHH what a day.
Thanks gang,
Eb
P.S. I drive a 1997 Acura CL 3.0 if that helps.

 

Bolt sizes should all be 10 mm sockets I believe. Not sure about the tensioning, I have an alternator / starter guy that does all my work.