Alternator issues

[MountainDew]

I have constantly been battling this stupid alternator ever since I got the car. Most the lights on my instrument panel are lit up while the car is driving which I searched and discovered this is signs of a dying alternator. It's $72 for a new one with a core, so it's not hurting my wallet TOO bad..

Anyways.. My alternator sits very crooked. I believe what happened is one of the previous owners got lazy with the tensioner and it started pulling it away. Eventually over time and wear, the mounting bracket on the BLOCK had become crooked. Literally the long bolt that goes through the alternator and into the block ate away the bracket. There is probably about a half-inch of play with the bolt and I'd say it sits at about a 15-20 degree angle.

It has just become way too much of an inconvenience for me. I've probably spent about 10 hours just trying to get it to work halfway decent. I just tried a shorter belt and it seemed to work great, but eventually it popped it off and pretty much ate the belt.

Anyone have any ideas? The only things I can think of are drill the bracket on the block all the way through and put a sleeve in it with a hole small enough to fit the alternator bolt. Only problem is it's going to be hard to drill it straight. I also thought I might be able to drill it through and wedge something inbetween the bolt. I don't think that'd work out too well.

Any ideas? I'm going to start working on it tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Talesin]

Assuming you're meaning the square-ended pivot bolt (not the tensioner bracket/assembly), mine has zero play... sleeving the pivot would probably fix the problem. I'd call a few machine shops and see if they can do the work, or see if there's any way you can rig a full-on jig to keep it aligned.

Side note, Autozone alternators (while crappy) come with a lifetime warranty. I've gotten used to just swapping mine out every six months or so. It's really not that difficult, even with the car on the ground.. at least on a 1G. Just crank the steering wheel to the left and bend/flex the lower splash panel a little to get it off. Hardest part is getting the belt on, honestly.

 

[MountainDew]

Assuming you're meaning the square-ended pivot bolt (not the tensioner bracket/assembly), mine has zero play... sleeving the pivot would probably fix the problem. I'd call a few machine shops and see if they can do the work, or see if there's any way you can rig a full-on jig to keep it aligned.

Side note, Autozone alternators (while crappy) come with a lifetime warranty. I've gotten used to just swapping mine out every six months or so. It's really not that difficult, even with the car on the ground.. at least on a 1G. Just crank the steering wheel to the left and bend/flex the lower splash panel a little to get it off. Hardest part is getting the belt on, honestly.

Yeah I said the mounting bracket on the block. I was talking about the tensioner being loose and making it pull crooked.

 

[romeen]

It's not too hard to remove the mounting bracket from the block. This would allow you put it in a vice to straighten it out. You could also try hitting a junkyard for the mounting bracket.

 

[MountainDew]

It's not too hard to remove the mounting bracket from the block. This would allow you put it in a vice to straighten it out. You could also try hitting a junkyard for the mounting bracket.

How can the bracket be removed when it's part of the block itself?

 

[romeen]

How can the bracket be removed when it's part of the block itself?

I may have been thinking of the mounting bracket for the PS pump which I know is bolted to the block. Now I can't remember how the alternator and mounting bracket are set up. I'm going to have to look at it tomorrow. My bad if I got that wrong.

Crap, getting old really sucks!

 

[Talesin]

Well, the long tensioner bracket 'arm' just bolts onto the side of the block. The lower pivot point is cast in. I'm assuming that you've tightened the tensioner arm bracket in the meantime.
Also, make sure that you have the proper bolt... I've seen some people who just threw on a too-small (diameter) one as they lost/didn't have/snapped their proper alt lower pivot bolt. One end should be a roughly inch-by-inch fixed square that butts up against a ridge on the alternator, rather than a standard bolt head. Just letting you know this to rule out any weird possibilities.

Have you taken out the bolt and removed the alternator, and looked inside to make sure that the holes are actually oblong'd out? Is there any space between the two collars when you have the alt in? Could be that one of the 'collars' just bent away a little bit, which could be fixed with a C-clamp, or just tightening the pivot bolt down more every couple of days.

Failing everything else, a machine shop could probably cut both of the screwed-up 'collars' off and just weld on new ones. It is cast iron, after all.

 

[MountainDew]

Alternator is off. Yes you were thinking of the power steering that is mounted, the alternator one is actually part of the block. The bolt has lots of play while in the hole and it's the right bolt. I also have a bolt off a 4g64 and a 1G so I have plenty and the right bolts.

I think at this point, I'm just going to get a piece of cast iron piping where the bolt will fit through just fine. Then attempt to drill out the mounting bracket on the block to fit the pipe in. There MAY still be a little bit of play but it wouldn't be nearly as bad and I doubt it'd sit very crooked if any at all.

It's going to be tough to fit a drill down there and also drill it straight.

 

[romeen]

It's going to be tough to fit a drill down there and also drill it straight.

I'm not sure I clearly understand what you are going to do but this may make things easier and it's on sale for $10.

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

or for $10 more:

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

[MountainDew]

Well I ended up using a bigger bolt and drilling out the bracket. I took the tire off, removed the motor mount and lowered the engine. Barely made it but I got er done. It still sits crooked, but it seems quite a bit better. I haven't boughten a new alternator yet. Hopefully this one works fine. I discovered on the alternator plug, I had a broken wire. So hopefully this will explain some of the problems I've had recently.

 

[MountainDew]

Still having issues. Now the belt just snapped off and the car overheated.. hopefully nothing too bad happened...

I've redrilled the mount on the block and used a bigger bolt so now it sits much straighter. Still the car will die and what not, won't recharge the system. Tonight I was letting a potential buyer test drive when this started to happen again. Got the car home and when I pulled into the garage there was smoke pouring out of the engine bay.

I am so fed up with this car.

 

[MountainDew]

Redrilled the hole on the block AGAIN and used an even bigger bolt. Turns out that the alternator pully had all sorts of crap jammed in the ridges, causing the belt to slip real badly. Got everything cleaned out and used a Gates belt that is a little bit shorter then OEM. (Had to, tensioner wasn't tightening very well with the OEM belt). Car shows above 12 volts at all times now and runs great. Runs much cooler now even after doing multiple pulls to redline at 14psi. Link is out of the car (Non-Legitimate copy.. =/ ) So I couldn't log any runs but I'm pretty confident everything is running pretty well now.

Also if anyone has any troubles with all the lights lighting up on the dash (coolant, ebrake, etc) check the red wire on the alternator plug. This is the wire that goes to the ECU. Mine was broken so I pulled the wire out of the plug and resoldered it, good as new.