Changing alternator

Hi, you might remember me from back in spring i was on here asking about a car. http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=402732

Well, he ended up selling it to my brother's friend. He had it up until now and fixed all of the major problems that i listed before. the car runs good now except for the body :shakehead . I got the chance to buy it again and now i was able to. $150.

I need to change the alternator on it because it is not charging the battery. The previous owner knows that it has some problems with it so he picked one up but never installed it and he gave it to me with the car. I was looking around today and noticed that it seems to be burried pretty good near the engine. Is this a difficult thing to do? Looks like a lot of stuff needs to get out of the way so i can even reach it.

It's simple. Disconnect the battery, remove belt, remove alternator bolts & connections, push altenator aside, remove alternator bracket on engine, pull out alternator, reverse for install. You will need to remove it from the bottom, it's tricky but it WILL come out. Some these people insist on remove the axle, that's a waste of time unless it a swapped engine.

you dont have to remove the axle, like jackassi said, but it sure does make it easier with the extra room. and it takes what, like 10 mins to pull an axle out, so why not.

yea moving the axle truly is a waste of time. i can do the swap know in about 45 mins. and the alternator jsut carefulyl drops out right above the axle.

Its alot easier if you just pop the axle out, it don't take that long to pop the axle out and the extra room helps alot. I haven't had to change one on the civic, but have on an 84 accord, alternator is in the same spot. On that one I HAD to pull the axle, and even with me trying to wrestle with it trying to get it out without taking the axle out, it only took me about 45mins-1hr.

Takes about 5 minutes to pull out, no need to remove the axle. Yall people who say its so much easier to pull the axle out need to work on cars more offen.

TSC i think I work on cars just as much as you, and I like to work smart when working on my cars, and not wrestle stuff around. Its not like its flat rate LOL.

I've always had troubles with pulling axles... one in a while the ball joint will pop right out but most of the time I have to fight with the damned thing, and on my current car its complelty seized in place, can't get the mother out for the life of me.

BTW I've never had any issues with just removing the bracket and pulling it out axle in

actually, i guess the altenator isnt even bad. Its the battery. My brother has a nice digital charger that also checks the alt and it read 100%. What are the big symptoms that i would notice with a bad alt.? The only thing that i notice happening is when the car is idling the lights go a little dim and brighten up when i rev the engine.

My car does that but I have underdrive pulleys and a loppy cam. If you are stock might want to adjust something. Hell, I may adjust something. Anybody have an idea?

Take your battery to a parts store and have them test it, if it is good, take your alt to the store and have them test it. Low voltage at low RPM could be alt or battery.

Takes about 5 minutes to pull out, no need to remove the axle. Yall people who say its so much easier to pull the axle out need to work on cars more offen.
I work in a salvage yard pulling parts all day...I think I work on cars enough. I haven't pulled the alternator on my civic, and not saying its not possible to do it without removing the axle. But I have done enough wrestling with parts that I would rather just spend the extra couple minutes to give me a little more room for it to just drop out without a fight.

I have run into some bad ball joints, but always managed to get them out, just takes a big hammer, or a little logic. My dad also works at the same yard, he ran into a ball joint that he used a pickle fork on and got the fork all the way in and still didn't bust the ball joint loose yet, had to take the sway bar and anything else putting pressure on the lower control arm to get it to finally pop. Most ball joints all you have to do is take the bolt off, hit the side of the control arm a few times and it usually pops right out.

I changed mine without pullin the axle. I have a swap and I got it out, I did have to remove the oil filter to get it through, but I'd rather remove the filter than the axle.

lol mine came out from the top, no problems... didnt even take off the plastic shield from below, took an hour because the bolts were seized. make sure when u put the new one in to get the belt real tight u dont want it squeeling and making u look stupid


oh, and its really easy, only 2 bolts. come on how hard can that be.

taking out an axle is alot harder then just wrestling around alittle.

actually, i guess the altenator isnt even bad. Its the battery. My brother has a nice digital charger that also checks the alt and it read 100%. What are the big symptoms that i would notice with a bad alt.? The only thing that i notice happening is when the car is idling the lights go a little dim and brighten up when i rev the engine.Ground's I had the same thing going on. I tried everything I could think of Batt alt etc..., and I saw those ground wires on ebay for 15.00. Thought I would give'em a try. I have to say no more problems.
My idle has not dropped below 750 with headlights brakes and wipers on.

Give them a try.

SH

Really, this topic is just mixed opinions. I have absolutely no problem pulling 6 more bolts including the lug nuts and hitting a control arm a couple times to get an axle out of the way so I don't have to wrestle with anything.

Others prefer to leave it in there and take the bracket off and pull the alternator out. And others would just rather leave everything and just get the alternator.

Any of these ways apparently works, just depends which one you wanna do. Atleast the guy know several different ways to get it out if he gets stuck.

But the last guy has a point with the grounds, I would try those first, be easier than taking everything out just to test it.