I was removing my alternator today and ran into an unusual problem. I attempted to remove the alternator pivot bolt but it would not budge. By use of a breaker bar i was able to get it to back out about half an inch and now it is completely stuck. The strange part is I can see the threads are free on the back of the alternator but it just wont move. Can you guys give me any advice on what to do the remove the bolt. I tried various things like heating up the part that is stuck and even trying to pry the bolt but nothing works. If you guys can give me any suggestions or just tell me how to remove that mount i would appreciate it.

 

Oh man , are you in for some trouble ........

The alternator housing that the bolt passes through is aluminium . The bolt is steel . Through the wonderful miracle known as "dis similar metals corrosion" the bolt and housing have become a mostly fuzed mess of white powdery corrosion that will cause you great difficulty in removing the bolt , even with it being able to turn a little .........

The only two ways I've ever got one of these things apart were to either keep spraying it with penetrating oil , and , having grabbed really secure the bolt head with a good not beat up visegrip (try to minimize the damage to the bolt head if you have to re use the bolt) , and wiggling it to help work in the oil .......

Or give the bolt up for junk and cut it off carefully with an air powered rotary cut off tool . Only reccomended it your darn good with metalwork and have a source for a replacement bolt ....

And yes , if you do get the bolt out , It'll need to be cleaned on the wirewheel in your bench grinder and coated well with anti seize compound before ya put it back .........

Good Luck .....

 

Thanks for the response, looks like I'm probably going to have to cut the bolt out. Guess I'll be searching the local scrapyards for a replacement lol

 

Well its out. I didn't have an air powered rotary tool nor could I afford one lol. Instead my father suggested using his ryobi sawzall and sure enough we got it out. All that's left is sourcing a bolt and installing the new alternator. In case you're wondering why I keep posting, I do it on the off chance someone else may have these problems and can use this information to finish their project.

 

Cool , a Sawzall is just as good for this .... And as to the bolt , have you checked with your local auto parts store ? A lot of times , on their "help" rack , they have alternator and starter bolts in several common sizes . I got starter bolts for my 2.8 a few months ago at Autozone ....

And , don't worry about the posting thing , If your only adding to a discussion topic , and not repeatedly bumping a for sale thread , you'll have no problems here

 

Actually, none of the auto shops in my area carried anything remotely close to that nor did the local hardware stores. Surprisingly there was a commercial screw and bolt place near me and I was able to get a matching bolt made of stainless steel. Just for future ref. the bolt was an m10x1.5 with a length of 5 inches. BTW if you try going to a GM dealership they said the part was discontinued and would cost around $27 and $9 shipping for them to get one.