Changing the altenator

Hey

First, just like to say that im brand new, and its nice to meet you all.

My girlfriends sisters cavalier (1997 auto) has a bad altenator, or at least everything that points to a bad altenator.
Now I read the sticky, thank god I did cause I learned something I would have never figured out, the belt tensioner. Didn't know the serpentine was tightened this way, then agian I don't work on cars like these at all ;)

I was looking at the alt, and it looks pretty damn simple to replace. Just loosen the belt, remove the bolts, wires and bolt in the new one right?
Is it this straight forward? do you guys have any other recommendations or advice that I should look out for before I start this job tomorrow?

Just for kicks I'll post what happened with her car.
She was driving and her lights started to dim, weird noise from engine bay and the car almost died. She got it to her driveway and found that it pretty much died right when she parked it. I was thinking the battery, but I mean it doesn't die unless its not being charged, thus the altenator.
We started it up tonight before I agree'd to work on it, and it ran fine, I heard nothing of the noise she was talking about lol. Either way im thinking that we should change the alternator anyways, unless for some reason you guys can think of something else that it could be.

Just curious but I was wondering if theres a way to test and see if the alt is bad by reading it with a volt meter? is this possible?

Thank you! Any and all advice is appreciated, along with your time to answer the above questions.

Brent

also, anyone know the torque specs on the bolts that hold down the alt?

Easy. Sounds like you got a good idea of how to replace it. As for the volt meter, yes it is usually possible to find a bad one with a volt meter. Just get the car started, and check the voltage while running. It should be between 13 and 18. Turn on the lights and look for a drop.Good Luck.

well looks like the ama tower guy told her to get a new battery, so they replaced it and the car is fine.. for now. Although I didn't get to replace the alt, im sure that I will within the week after they realize that it is the alt.
Meh.

I found some really good pages here searching a little bit more on replacement, one of them was a link to autozone or something similar showing (with pics) how to change it. Converted them to PDF so when the time comes I can glance at it with the notebook.

Thanks for the reply tho, much appreciated :D