Ok, some of you saw my post on the rattling noise inside my alt; well, I just bought a new alt and its the first time im gonna change this by myself. I was gonna buy the haynes manual for the firebird but they only had the camaro so i hope there isnt that much of a difference. Anyway, the reason of this post is to get as many suggestions and tips on how to change an alt before I do it.

thanks guys!!

 

It's really one of the easiest things to do on your car. Depending on if you have v belts or a serpentine will make a difference. My advice is before you start unbolting, DISCONNECT THE BATTERY! Sparks could go a flyin! That's not first hand experience or nothing.......but anyways, the hardest problem you will have is getting off your belt if it's a v belt system. Other than that, it's just a bolt on. Good luck!

 

its only one band, so i guess its serpentine. Thanks for the comment

 

EASY..very easy. Disconnect the battery. Disconnect all the clips to the alternator. Remove the serpentine belt by turning the belt tensioner with a breaker bar or a ratchet if you're strong...have a friend slip it off for ya. You WILL need a buddy to help put the belt back on of course. Just remove the bracket bolts and yank the alt out...install the new one with all the brackets back in place and just reconnect everything and put the belt back on. It's cake.

 

Disconnect POSITIVE battery cable. FIRST
Rest is so easy!
Wrenches needed are 10mm, 13mm, maybe a 15mm.
MAKE SURE
you got an alternator with a LIFETIME warranty.
MAKE SURE
you got the right one!!!
IF an AC'd car, or any car with electrics, you need the 105 AMP powered alternator.
Anything less & you got the wrong one.
PS this alternator is "expensive" (maybe like $100 or so).

 

I thought that you were to always disconnect the negative first. That what I have ALWAYS Been told and even read. It's even in the Haynes manual. Touching the positive while the negative is still attached could lead to a very shocking experience if you touch anything metal in the process, trust me, even with as much as I've been told, I did it once...just once.

 

I bought this one:

http://www.partsamerica.com/PartDeta...ype=11&PTSet=A

Dealing with the serpentine seems to be kinda stressing. any advices on that?

 

My logic on POSITIVE FIRST
Once positive cable removed from power source (battery), there is NO power thru any source for a spark.
IF ya remove negative cable, there is still power available by a chance "tool to vehicle meeting-Opps!".

Anyone else?

I have done just negative so often & resulting sparks when my tool hit a metal grounding surface.

IF correct, I believe on my alternator swap, the instructions stated to remove the power source, which is a positive battery cable.
Those instructions came with the rebuilt Firebird alternator "by Autolite", yes Ford.

 

Basically you can take the serpentine off yourself. Use a breaker bar or ratchet with a 15 mm socket on the belt tensioner. What I do is I position it so I push down on the ratchet with my weight and pull the belt off with my left hand. It's pretty easy just go at it!

 

I've never gotten sparks whendisconecting the neg side first. That way, whenthe rachet you're (not supposed to be ) using hits teh metal in the engine bay, no sparks cause you're going neg to neg contact.

 

Yep, negative first. That way you can't be electricuted while holding a metal tool and leaning against a metal fender in the rain. The whole body of the car is negative ground, so you can't complete any circuit.

Make sure your battery is also charged up; it's been said that a dead battery can kill an alternator's regulator- although I don't know how that's possible. Might as well charge up the battery just in case.

 

Tom...did you say you can't complete a circuit on the body of the car?? Never heard that one before...I'm always extremely careful where I let that negative cable sit.

 

I replaced my alternator today, only to find out there was nothing wrong with the old one and the problems I'm having have to do with the fact that a couple of spark wires got burned through. At least I have a new alternator. I got the Accel 8mm wires, universal kit... had to put the ends on the wires and it was a pain, never doing that again. Does anyone know of anything I should be aware of when I replace the automatic belt tensioner tommorrow? The guy that helped me turned the bolt instead of push on it, way overtightened and I have stripped threads.

 

Not trying to kick a dead horse here, but in order for the power to flow anywhere, both battery terminals MUST be hooked up. The entire body of the car is attached to the negative ground, but the positive is broken by many things. If you grab a hold of the positive end, and touch the body, you complete a circuit back to the battery throught the body, which connects to the negative wire, which goes into the battery...ZAP!!! if you are touching the negative wire and you touch the body or something metal, then you are just going from negative to the body, which is connected to the negative that you are already touching...nice and happy. See...that simple.

 

Yep. And if you must touch the positive cable, or do anything else with high voltage that's risky, always keep one hand behind you and lean against the fender.

This way the current will go through your arm and into your hip and to the fender, and will have a less of a chance of killing you.

Less of a chance, that is, if you had one hand touching the power and your other hand on the fender. That gives the current a direct path through your heart- and it doesn't take much (current OR voltage) to stop the 'ol ticker.

 

Scary stuff.. Never thought of a car battery as a deadly piece of equipment! But then again...look at how many cranking AMPS those suckers pack...

 

yeah man, I'll tell you a good shock HURTS! i was adjusting my timing one day and I was trying to rotate the distributor with the motor running so that I could get an immediate result as to where it's at and the current jumped through the boot...obviously bad(replaced it that day) and shocked my. 50,000 volts in one arm and out the hip. Left a nice burn mark on my hip and on my hand. Arm was also numb for about 3 hours. Good thing it's not voltage that kills, it's amperage.

 

What, you mean normal people DON'T adjust the timing with the car running? I do it all the time!

Like you said, good thing it wasnt amperage..but that must've stung like a MOTHER[expletive deleted]!

 

no, I still adjust with the motor running. It's just that I had a bad boot and the voltage jumped right to my hand. And yes it did sting, like nothing I've ever felt before, or want to again.

 

Hehe...I cant even imagine. I got zapped by an electrical plug at work...wiped around it with a wet rag and it was partially unplugged. Luckily it was grounded. Lots and lots of amperage there. Not much voltage though I guess. Didnt sting at all, just my hand was numb and my arm tingled for 5 or 10 mins.

That 30,000-50,000 volts though...whewee...bet that knocked you back.

 

Nope, voltage kills, too.

it's all Ohms law...

Volts = Amperage X Resistance (V=I*R)
Power = (Voltage X Voltage) / Amperage (P=V squared*A)

High enough voltage, or high enough amperage, are the same thing. Basically, to equal high amperage, you need very high voltage.

Assume 100 ohm of resistance, and assume 500 amps. That's probably what a cheap wal-mart battery can do. Well apply V=I*R, and you get an "equivilance" of 50,000 volts to that 500 amps. Guess what an aftermarket spark coil puts out...

I had a physics class in which we took the resistance of the human skin, the voltage at which a heart would stop, and calculated how much voltage it would take to kill someone with an arm span of a certain length. Then we just flipped the equations to do it with amperage. And after that class was when I became much more careful around my car's electrical system! Scary stuff.

I couldn't tell you how to adjust timing without the motor running, though. Well; I guess you could find timing, shut the car off, loosen the hold-down, spin dist a bit, tighten hold-down, and restart the car...? I got a hell of a shock too when adjusting the timing on that 2.8-2.8 swap. Haven't gotten shocked by my own car, though.

In another physics class, we learned how to make a flame thrower for an exhaust (just the electrical part, of course).